Wednesday, March 2, 2011

New Urbanism Now: Catching up with Andrés Duany

by Cody Winchester, National Post

If you’ve heard about New Urbanism, the anti-sprawl philosophy practised in many planning circles, chances are it’s because of Andrés Duany, the Miami-based architect, urban planner and evangelist-in-chief for the popular design movement. Mr. Duany, born in America but raised in Cuba and Spain, has for three decades boosted the ideals of New Urbanism in forums from Rome to Sydney to Harvard Square.
It wasn’t always so. In 1977, Mr. Duany helped found the techie modernist firm Arquitectonica, in Miami (one of its condos is featured in the opening credits of Miami Vice). In 1980, he and his partner, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, left to form Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Co., and promptly shifted gears. They dropped the high-rise glass-and-steel look in favour of traditionally designed, self-contained communities that emphasize density, walkability and mixed use — the New Urbanism. In 1993, they signed on as charter members of the influential Congress for the New Urbanism.
In the interim, New Urbanism has become quite popular — DPZ has designed more than 300 projects worldwide, including eight in Canada. We spoke with Mr. Duany about smart growth, why Canada produces an excellent bureaucrat, and why human happiness is the best measure of a development’s success.


Andres Duany, by Stephen Rees
more posts about Andres Duany:

What Andres Duany and Peter Calthrope Beieved in 1995

New Urbanist Silverback Andres Duany and the Young Locusts

New Urbanism, Smart Growth, & Andres Duany: A Critique From Suburbia

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