Just the facts
11-25-2013, 08:46 PM
I read this today and it blew me away, and guess what - it is coming to OKC.
El Paso Teaches New Urbanism to Architects, Engineers (http://www.governing.com/columns/urban-notebook/gov-city-governments-make-new-urbanism-part-of-work-culture.html)
For more than 50 years, developers and city officials in El Paso, Texas, worked from the same page when it came to designing and approving new commercial, institutional and residential developments. New buildings tended to be low-slung, sprawling complexes, designed to meet the needs of the automobile and not the city's residents. Every commercial building was surrounded by parking lots and kept firmly separate from residential areas -- the two linked only by roads and highways.
But that's changing. El Paso officials waht to reinvent the city by following the tenets of new urbanism, which means a greater emphasis on dense, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use buildings that are street-oriented and more green spaces. But there was one big problem in making that change: The local development community and the architects were still designing the old-fashioned way.
...
El Paso ended up offering a nine-week session on new urbanism to its department heads and engineers, and has since opened the course up to the private sector. The city has also started requiring that any design firm that wants to do capital work with the city has to have someone on the team accredited in new urbanism practices. According to McElroy, approximately 100 city staff and 100 private architects and engineers have taken the course and passed the accreditation exam.
Today, El Paso is fielding multiple requests from other cities to "come in and teach new urbanism," says McElroy, who plans to run a three-day intensive session in Austin soon. And in January, McElroy will run a similar session for 40 to 50 government workers in Oklahoma City.
For the record, I finished my certification last month. If anyone has any interest in the subject I recommend taking the class. The details are in the New Urbansim Library thread.
El Paso Teaches New Urbanism to Architects, Engineers (http://www.governing.com/columns/urban-notebook/gov-city-governments-make-new-urbanism-part-of-work-culture.html)
For more than 50 years, developers and city officials in El Paso, Texas, worked from the same page when it came to designing and approving new commercial, institutional and residential developments. New buildings tended to be low-slung, sprawling complexes, designed to meet the needs of the automobile and not the city's residents. Every commercial building was surrounded by parking lots and kept firmly separate from residential areas -- the two linked only by roads and highways.
But that's changing. El Paso officials waht to reinvent the city by following the tenets of new urbanism, which means a greater emphasis on dense, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use buildings that are street-oriented and more green spaces. But there was one big problem in making that change: The local development community and the architects were still designing the old-fashioned way.
...
El Paso ended up offering a nine-week session on new urbanism to its department heads and engineers, and has since opened the course up to the private sector. The city has also started requiring that any design firm that wants to do capital work with the city has to have someone on the team accredited in new urbanism practices. According to McElroy, approximately 100 city staff and 100 private architects and engineers have taken the course and passed the accreditation exam.
Today, El Paso is fielding multiple requests from other cities to "come in and teach new urbanism," says McElroy, who plans to run a three-day intensive session in Austin soon. And in January, McElroy will run a similar session for 40 to 50 government workers in Oklahoma City.
For the record, I finished my certification last month. If anyone has any interest in the subject I recommend taking the class. The details are in the New Urbansim Library thread.