Urban Design for an Urban Century: Shaping More Livable, Equitable, and Resilient Cities, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4Recentralization: Twenty-First-Century Urbanism Takes Shape

In his 2008 book Another City: Urban Life and Urban Spaces in the New American Republic,¹ architectural historian Dell Upton calls American cities places of “perpetual ruin and repair.” Nothing has changed. By 2040, the United States will create as much built space as it did from 1950 to 2010.² As it does, the impact of the forces described in chapter 3 will grow stronger. We will build at an unprecedented pace even as we wrestle with greater income disparities, an aging population, shrinking households, increasingly fierce global economic competition, and accelerating climate change.

We don’t need to guess how these forces will reshape urbanism over the coming decades. Many areas have already begun restructuring to support a shift from sprawl to compact growth, reinventing suburbs to reflect changing markets and evolving environmental and personal values, and retrofitting downtowns and urban neighborhoods to accommodate new growth.

There are many individual examples of fine streets, attractive parks, active public spaces, and successful neighborhoods that, if brought together in one city, would create a magnificent urban place. The challenge today is to achieve consistent high design quality everywhere in every city.

Jonathan Barnett, FAIA, FAICP, professor of city and regional planning and director of the Urban Design Program, University of Pennsylvania

Traveling Along the Smart Growth Transect