by ArchitectureWeek

Architect and urban designer Peter Calthorpe has received the 2006 J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development from the Urban Land Institute. This award salutes his 30-year career of creating neighborhoods and communities that are livable, walkable, and diverse.

Calthorpe, principal of Calthorpe Associates, works to improve the balance between land development and land preservation. His firm has master-planned communities throughout the United States and around the world. Projects include a major urban center on the Tunis waterfront, public housing in Chicago, and the transformation of the former Denver Stapleton Airport into a mixed-use community.

He formed the Berkeley, California firm Calthorpe Associates in 1983, and later, with John Fregonese, formed the Portland, Oregon firm of Fregonese Calthorpe Associates, which has pioneered the emerging field of community-based urban design. In 1993, Calthorpe cofounded the Congress for New Urbanism.

The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) advocates public policies and development practices that support more livable communities. The organization has a set of principles that apply to the design and development of all levels of community — the region, the city, and the block.

Calthorpe explains: "New urbanism involves communities that are diverse and integrated, in terms of who is there and what is there. It takes in a full range of people of all colors and backgrounds — higher income, lower income, young, old, families, singles, the broadest range possible. It includes shops, schools, housing, parks, businesses, all the uses, all mixed together, all walkable. You cannot have good urbanism without that kind of diversity and walkability."   >>>

Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...

Proposed urban center on the Tunis waterfront by Peter Calthorpe, recipient of the 2006 J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Image: Calthorpe Associates Tunis waterfront site plan. Image: Calthorpe Associates Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.