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Plenaries

* Indicates ticketed session.


Opening Plenary: Twenty Years of the CNU: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 | 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
AIA credits approved: 1
AICP CM Credits: 1

CNU founder Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk opens CNU 20 with perspectives on where we were two decades ago, the achievements of the CNU and its individual members over the past twenty years, and new challenges facing proponents of urbanism today. The CNU story encompasses a multitude of individuals and groups who came together in support of a larger, shared vision of livable community design. It is a human story of people acting individually and collectively to identify and apply New Urbanist principles and goals. The opening plenary will also include an introduction by CNU founder Stefanos Polyzoides and the presentation of CNU-Florida’s Nolen Award.

Chuck Bohl, Professor and Director, School of Architecture, University of Miami

John O. Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Principal , Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company

Stefanos Polyzoides, Principal, Moule & Polyzoides Architects & Urbanists


Meet the Candidates: CNU Board Elections

Thursday, May 10, 2012 | 08:30 - 09:00AM
Please check back for updates on AIA and AICP credits

Let your voice be heard and have a say in who leads CNU. Join CNU Board Chair Victor Dover and CNU President John Norquist for a brief introduction to the new Board election process, meet the 2012 candidates and cast your vote for CNU's first ever member election to the Board.

Victor Dover, CNU-A, Principal, Dover, Kohl & Partners

John O. Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism


Looking Forward: New Urbanism and the New World

Thursday, May 10, 2012 | 9:00 AM - 12:00PM
AIA credits approved: 3
AICP CM Credits: 3.25

As we enter CNU's third decade, economic, political, and environmental conditions pose serious challenges for the built and natural environment, as well as New Urbanist practice. Two of CNU's Founders will open this session with lectures addressing these challenges. Andres Duany will present the 21st century crises that call for New Urbanists to adapt, including slow development, the public process, suburban retrofit, agricultural urbanism, and the theology of metrics. Dan Solomon will discuss the tensions between new urbanism's roots in the nuanced complexity of the city and the reductive codifying of New Urbanist practice.

Following the opening lectures, we will tackle New Urbanism's future with open source small group discussions around the theme of "How can the New Urbanism help us meet the challenges of the New World?" These sessions will launch this year's Open Source Congress.

Andrés Duany, Principal, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company

Jennifer Hurley, AICP, NJPP, CNU-A, President & CEO, Hurley-Franks & Associates

Daniel Solomon, Principal, Daniel Solomon Design Partners


Athena Medal Awards Plenary: The Uniqueness of Urban Design

Thursday, May 10, 2012 | 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
AIA credits approved: 1

Our understanding of Urban Design has emerged from the unique conditions and requirements of the dense traditional city, where we have focused our practice for the past 40 years. Primary among these is the need to combine high-rise towers with mid or low rise, high-density fabric to satisfy the economic requirements of the contemporary city.

The demographic trend away from the center city to the suburb in the US has been reversed over the last generation -- our cities are growing again. We are further witnessing intense urbanization from a population explosion in the developing world. As a result, differences and similarities between urban design and town planning need to be identified to adequately address issues of the increasing scale, size and density we are experiencing.

These include: how to tolerate multiple stylistic architectures in a coherent manner; how to design urban continuity with non-uniform and frequently changing architectural components; and how to make an architecture with contextual connections that provide surface continuities with its neighbors. In the city, individual buildings must touch and blend to form a solid block perimeter containing inner privacy and an outer edge of public space.

Michael Dennis, Principal-in-Charge, Michael Dennis and Associates (MDA)

Barbara Littenberg, Peterson Littenberg Architecture & Urban Design

Steven Peterson, Peterson Littenberg Architecture & Urban Design

Dhiru Thadani, AIA, Architect + Urbanist


Friday Morning Gathering and Photo

Friday, May 11, 2012 | 9:00 AM - 10:15AM
Please check back for updates on AIA and AICP credits

Mathew McElroy, El Paso, TX City Planner, is this year's recipient of the Groves Award. This recognition is named after Ken Groves - the visionary planner who began the transformation of Montgomery, AL from hollowed-out sprawl victim to revived, historic city. The Groves Award is awarded annually to honor the designer or local leader whose achievements best fulfill the vision and promise Groves left behind. This year, CNU recognizes McElroy's accomplishments in strengthening the urban fabric of El Paso.

Join us as leaders of CNU 21 describe the fabulous setting of Salt Lake City, including how the Envision Utah Plan organized by CNU Co-founder Peter Calthorpe and new light rail transit lines are making Salt Lake City one of America's fastest-improving cities. CNU Co-founder Peter Calthorpe will discuss what is new urbanism’s greatest opportunity- China.

CNU Group Photo
Immediately following the awards please listen for instructions for a mass photograph to commemorate CNU's 20th Congress. Award winning new urbanist photographer Art Cueto will be ready to snap the picture at 10:15 sharp. Don't miss it!

Peter Calthorpe, Author, CNU Co-Founder, and Leading Regional & Community Planner, Calthorpe Associates

Victor Dover, CNU-A, Principal, Dover, Kohl & Partners

Michael Hathorne, Senior Planning Manager, Suburban Land Reserve

Mathew McElroy, AICP, CNU-A, Deputy Director, Planning & Economic Development, City of El Paso, TX

John O. Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism


Friday Night Plenary with Richard Florida

Friday, May 11, 2012 | 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
AIA credits approved: 1 Learning Unit (LU)

Richard Florida, author of the best-selling Rise of the Creative Class and The Great Reset, speaks at CNU 20 on May 11. Florida is the founder of the Creative Class Group, currently heads the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and is a senior editor at Atlantic Magazine, having recently created the Atlantic Cities program.

In Florida's many articles and books, he has highlighted the positive benefits and attractiveness of cities. Florida argues that urbanism will drive wealth and development in the new economy. His positive views of cities have made Florida popular with mayors and urban advocates across the world - and particularly in America - who have successfully reversed the negative image of urban life that prevailed in the '70s, '80s and early '90s. His research and writing have helped shine a light on cities as the valuable core of a vibrant culture and successful economy. Critics of Florida's pro-urban prescriptions contend that the Creative Class is a proxy for gentrification. Others maintain that "people, not places" develop and question how far a city can rejuvenate itself by focusing on amenities catering to certain demographics.

Come ready to engage with Florida's ideas, which stand in importance alongside urban intellectuals like Ed Banfield and George Kelling. As the Century of the City takes shape, Florida comes to CNU at an opportune time.

Richard Florida, Founder, Creative Class Group

John O. Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism


Saturday Morning Plenary Featuring Leon Krier

Saturday, May 12, 2012 | 9 AM - 10:15 AM
AIA credits approved: 1.25
AICP CM Credits: 1

The Charter of the New Urbanism has proven to be a durable, living document throughout its existence. However, two issues have been left unresolved, leaving the Charter incomplete: the limit of high density and related number of floors, and the issue of style, building technology, methods and materials.

Even if there were no limit on energy consumption, no limit on the mechanization of transport, horizontal or vertical, and even if there existed no limit on production of more and better-performing synthetic building materials, we should still design and build to walkable building heights (a maximum of five floors), and use natural building materials and traditional building methods and styles. Even if we are in a situation of extreme mechanization and synthetic building materials, we should still build walkable building heights and use traditional building typology, vocabulary, styles and methods. The humanness of building-scale, methods and styles is dependent on these points of doctrine.

Previous CNU Athena Medal honoree, architect, and planner Leon Krier will discuss these issues, their interrelation, and why they need to be faced.

Léon Krier, Architect and Urban Planner

Dhiru Thadani, AIA, Architect + Urbanist


Saturday Night Closing Plenary: Memo for the Next Decade

Saturday, May 12, 2012 | 5:30PM - 6:30PM
AIA credits approved: 1
AICP CM Credits: 13

Sponsored by Bon Secours Virginia Health System.

Architect, urbanist and CNU founder Stefanos Polyzoides will offer a personal reflection on the last 20 years of the New Urbanism movement, and present her ‘Memo for the Next Decade.’ Physician and PBS personality Dr. Richard Jackson will discuss his latest findings on the links between the physical form of communities and the future health of their inhabitants.

Victor Dover, CNU-A, Principal, Dover, Kohl & Partners

Richard Jackson, Professor and Chair, Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health

Stefanos Polyzoides, Principal, Moule & Polyzoides Architects & Urbanists