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Efficient building practices allow builder to use high-quality materials on affordable townhomes.
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DPZ’s latest take on traditional neighborhood design exemplifies what the land planning gurus have learned since Seaside.
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The home building industry is in for a long, grueling winter, but there are signs of spring on the horizon. At opposite ends of the country, two new urbanist neighborhoods are sprouting up on sites that were more than ready for a little rejuvenation. Thanks to smart planning and a cooperative effort between public and private entities, East Beach (top right), a 100-acre project in Norfolk, Va., that was once a collection of crime-ridden housing, and Villebois (left), formerly home to the state mental hospital in Wilsonville, Ore., are on their way to becoming dynamic traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs).
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A murky present has builders just hoping for better days ahead. But looking forward, futurists see clearer paths to energy-efficient homes and walkable communities.
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LIFE ON A TROPICAL ISLAND offers some unexpected delights in this infill paradise. Proving that New Urbanism need not be synonymous with historic revival architecture, its geometric forms are completely modern.
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WHY IT WORKED: Located in the much-coveted West Bloomfield school district, Harbor Village exudes the easy charm of a small town in otherwise bustling Oakland County, Mich. The only TND in Keego Harbor, the community has broad appeal to first-time buyers, empty-nesters, and families.
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The Village of West Clay, one of the Midwest's most celebrated experiments in New Urbanism, may be proof positive that commercial zones are easier to change than citizen comfort zones.
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DESIGNING 89 RESIDENTIAL units in four unique housing types in one project is no easy task. Looney Ricks Kiss Architects met the challenge head-on and delivered a project that's become the centerpiece of the commercial town center in a new traditional neighborhood development (TND).
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Smart developers know how to sweeten an entitlement deal, all the while scoring an “A” for public goodwill. Shea Homes, Centex Corp., and Standard Pacific Corp. have pooled $73 million to build three public schools in RiverPark, a 700-acre traditional neighborhood development in Oxnard, Calif. As a funding alternative to impact fees, the hands-on effort ensures that community schools will open on time (as will new homes, unstymied by infrastructure delays). The schools' floor plans have been designed for wider community use, with gymnasiums, multi-purpose rooms, and libraries situated near front entrances.
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BILL BROSIUS' INITIAL INCLINATION was to introduce a stretch of townhomes in The Village of WestClay, a 680-acre Brenwick Development community just north of Indianapolis in the town of Carmel. That was before the voice of experience in his head reminded him that Midwestern home buyers were still somewhat lukewarm when it came to attached housing.
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The challenge of housing Las Vegas' new residents has introduced new terms to the area's vocabulary, including "live/work," "new urbanism," and, especially, "mixed-use."
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The architect says he was drawn to the New Urban Challenge because it offered an alternative to the "prevailing trend in our business of big, bigger, biggest."
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Take three very tight lots, three distinct buyer profiles, and strict architectural guidelines, and give them to three world-class architects. What do you get? Three small servings of perfection.The response from the architects to the New Urban Challenge was intensely personal. They designed houses they would want to live in themselves.
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JOKE IF YOU WANT ABOUT NEW JERSEY, BUT WHEN IT COMES to selling high-density waterfront housing, few can match the Landings at Harborside in Perth Amboy. The first phase of 78 homes of the project's 2,100-unit master plan sold out in 10 days, thanks largely to an innovative sales and design center created from a forsaken naval training center on site.
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The 2005 New Urban Challenge show home project, co-sponsored by Home and BUILDER magazines, stood up to 110 mph winds this fall and shows off the latest and greatest in walkable, new urban community design.
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IT'S RISKY TO WAX NOSTALGIC ABOUT AMERICA'S good old days. Often, gazing at a Norman Rockwell soft-focus version of our past glosses over the battles fought for the liberties and lifestyle improvements we take for granted today. A century ago, women in the United States had no voting rights; minorities suffered daily indignities; and half-starved immigrants (including children) bloodied their hands at factory looms. But improvements in basic living conditions were on the rise: Electric lighting was just hitting its stride, and even some of the more modest new homes were being built with indoor plumbing. Over the course of the century, standards of living advanced by leaps and bounds.
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A study published in the Journal of Urban Economics finds that homes in new urbanist neighborhoods cost 15.5 percent more than comparable homes in traditional neighborhoods. The study looked at sales prices of 48,000 single-family homes in Portland, Ore., and such neighborhood characteristics as the number of cul de sacs and proximity to shopping and public transportation.
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Michigan's picky young buyers hold out for what they want-and get it.
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Until recently, there weren't a lot of reasons to get off Highway 80 at Hercules, Calif. In fact, many San Franciscans probably aren't familiar with the little town, which is on the Bay side 16 miles north of Oakland. Promenade, built by Western Pacific Housing, is the first residential project in the revitalization plan.
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Not only do builders need to educate themselves on TND details and logistics, but they also have to teach their subs. "Plan to see costs rise as subcontractors figure this out," Burton warns.