Submitted by George Grasser:
To register for the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) in Buffalo, and for updates on the program and details of specific tours and sessions, including speaker profiles, go to www.cnu22.org.
To learn more about the event, click here.
Attendees – architects, planners, transportation experts, landscape architects, public officials, housing experts and suppliers, builders and developers, not-for-profit leaders, realtors, students, preservationists, environmentalists, attorneys, investors, citizen activists, interested general public.
Tentative Program (subject to change):
Tours (extra fee required for all tours) - All tours are open to the public
Monday-Tuesday (overnight) - Toronto – Go to www.cnu22.org for tour details and registration
Tuesday-Friday – various Open Air Bus Tours of Buffalo
Tuesday (all day) - Rochester; Western New York villages – Lewiston, Williamsville, East Aurora and Hamburg (with walkable community expert Dan Burden)
Wednesday – Buffalo is All Wright; Preserving Buffalo’s Built Legacy
Thursday (evening) – Sunset Boat Cruise on Buffalo River; Retail on Main Street (in Williamsville with retail expert Bob Gibbs)
Friday (evening) –HarborCenter 20-story Mixed-Use hockey/hotel/retail complex (under construction) and Canalside waterfront restoration
Saturday (morning) – Allentown and Elmwood District neighborhoods
Saturday (afternoon) – Buffalo’s West Side Story; Olmsted Parks and Parkways
Sunday (all day) –Niagara-on-the-Lake (with Andres Duany); Chautauqua Institution
Sunday (morning) - Niagara Falls & Lewiston (The Gardens at Oxbow); Buffalo on Bike
Workshop – (Extra fee required) – Niagara Falls Revival with Victor Dover and others. Open to the public. Saturday afternoon
Workshop – “Health Impact Assessment of Land Use Decisions” for public officials, advance registration required. Wednesday morning
Introduction to new urbanism sessions (New Urbanism 101) - Taught by leading new urbanist practitioners, including Jeff Speck. Included in registration fee. Wednesday morning
Introduction to new urbanism sessions (New Urbanism 101) - Taught by leading new urbanist practitioners including Andres Duany. Included in registration fee. Wednesday afternoon
Skilled urbanism sessions (New Urbanism 202) - Primarily for Public Officials. Health Impact Assessment and Complete Streets Guideline sessions. Extra fees apply. Wednesday
Charter Awards. The best new urbanist projects from around the world. Open to the public. Free. Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m.
Plenary presentations
Ken Greenberg (opening plenary) – From Toronto, one of North America’s leading planners. Some of his projects: New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, the Fan Pier in Boston, the Vision Plan for Washington D.C., Downtown Master Plan for Fort Lauderdale, St. Paul’s Mississippi Development Framework, Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. - Wednesday 5:15 pm | Open to the public
Jennifer Keesmaat – Chief Planner City of Toronto and Harriet Tregonning – former Planning Director of Washington D.C. now with U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Renewal (HUD) | Thursday morning
Ben Hamilton-Baillie – Professor,architect, urban designer and shared space “guru” from the United Kingdom. Influential in the UK’s recent “Manual for Streets.” Prominent works include the shared space project in Poynton, UK. | Friday morning
Enrique Penalosa – Former Mayor of Bogota, Columbia who changed the face of the city and made it for people, including the implementation of restrictions on car use, and Peter Calthorpe (one of the leading regional planners in the world – Salt Lake City, Chicago, areas in China and co-author of The Regional City) | Saturday morning
Reception for Planners – Sponsored by the Upstate NY Chapters of the American Planning Association featuring Buffalo historian and restaurant entrepreneur Mark Goldman | Wednesday evening
Exhibits and Bookstore – open to the public – Wednesday through Friday
Noontime presentations on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – Open to the public and free
Amy Levner – of AARP “Great Places for All Ages.” | Wednesday
Jeff Speck (planner, urban designer, author of Walkable City and co-author of Suburban Nation and The Smart Growth Manual) | Thursday
“The Future of Cities in America and Western New York” with William Fulton (Western New York native and former resident of Buffalo, co-author of The Regional City, former mayor of Ventura, CA and currently Planning Director of the City of San Diego) and James Howard Kunstler (pundit and author of The Geography of Nowhere, Home from No Where and The Long Emergency) | Friday
50 educational sessions – Presenters from: Buffalo area, Canada, Poland, Australia and all over the U.S
35 topical sessions
8 “lean urbanism” sessions
7 Art Room sessions for architects and planners
New Urbanism 101 (introductory) sessions and 8 New Urbanism 202 (advanced) sessions | All-day on Wednesday
Participants include:
Andres Duany (co-author of Suburban Nation and The Smart Growth Manual)
Victor Dover (co-author of Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns)
Jeff Speck (author of Walkable City and co-author of The Smart Growth Manual)
Dan Solomon
Stephanos Polyzoides
Robert A. M. Stern (Dean of Yale University School of Architecture and author of Paradise Planned: The Garden Suburb and the Modern City)
Michael Lykoudis (Dean of Univ. of Notre Dame School of Architecture)
Chuck Marohn, Dan Burden (walkable community guru)
John Norquist (former Mayor of Milwaukee and author of The Wealth of Cities)
Scott Smith (Mayor of Mesa, AZ and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors)
Steve Bellone (Suffolk County-NY County Executive)
Roxanne Qualls (former Mayor of Cincinnati)
Stephanie Minor (Mayor of Syracuse)
Charles Montgomery (author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design)
Naomi Sachs (author of Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces)
David Sloan Wilson (author of The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City One Block at a Time).
Open Innovation sessions: Prior to the Congress people submit topics for a 6-minute presentation at the Congress; the ideas are posted so that interested attendees can attend.
Open Dialogue sessions: At the Congress people identify topics for discussion. Each topic is posted with a time and place for people to join together to dialogue on the topic.
Art Room sessions: 7 mapping, drawing, sketching, photography sessions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for architects & planners
Lean urbanism: 8 sessions with Andres Duany – formal and informal sessions throughout the Congress on “lighter, quicker and cheaper” ways to revitalize cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods.
Special Evening Presentation: “A General Theory of Urbanism” with Andres Duany and Emily Talen at the Lexus Club in the First Niagara Center Arena. Wednesday at 8 pm | Open to the public and free
CNU State Chapter parties: Friday evening at various downtown venues
StrongTowns Boot Camp – Tuesday from 1 pm to 5:00 pm with Chuck Marohn, founder of Strong Towns and Michael Lydon co-author of Suburban Nation and The Smart Growth Manual at the Lafayette Hotel ($65 fee required).
The Boot Camp will be a fast-moving crash course covering why so many municipalities are facing financial difficulties, the specifics of creative placemaking and tactical urbanism to improve communities, and how a community can better accommodate small development projects. For more information and to register, go here.
Lecture by Joseph Minicozzi – The long-term fiscal impact to municipalities of different types of development. Lafayette Hotel | Tuesday at 5:00 pm | Open to the public and free
NextGen (the next generation of new urbanists) new urbanist program and dialogues:
A special presentation by Peatonito, Mexico City’s acclaimed masked champion of pedestrians | Wednesday evening (after Congress opening plenary session) at the Lafayette Hotel | Open to the public and free
“Brews, Bonfires & Silos” at Silo City on the Buffalo River | Thursday 6 pm | Open to the public and free
“Street Design Book” runs with Victor Dover | Friday and Saturday mornings at 7:45 am | Open to the public and free
Dialogue and debate with NextGen new urbanists, students and veteran new urbanists | Lafayette Hotel | Friday late evening to midnight (or later) | Open to the public and free
Closing Party | Larkinville | 6:30 pm on Saturday | Open to the public