Congress of New Urbanism puts focus on OKC
By: J. David Chapman/March 24, 2022
Oklahoma City is in the spotlight this week for a diverse, multidisciplinary, action-oriented group of individuals working to build places people love. They are city planners, urban architects, urban designers, developers, civil engineers, transportation professionals, and real estate experts. Local OKC urban real estate enthusiasts applied to get the prestigious Congress for the New Urbanism Annual Meeting called CNU-30 several years ago. They won the opportunity to bring thousands of built environment professionals to downtown Oklahoma City. I have been certified from the organization for years as a Certified New Urbanist Accredited, or CNUa.
CNU’s mission is to champion walkable urbanism. They provide resources, education, and technical assistance to create socially just, economically robust, environmentally resilient, and people-centered places. They work to diversify neighborhoods, to design for climate change, and to legalize walkable places. They refer to their mission as a movement and work to empower their members’ efforts, identify policy opportunities, innovate work to a national audience, and create new strategies for implementing policy through design approaches.
New Urbanists share the conviction that our physical environment has a direct effect on our chances for happy, prosperous lives. This physical environment includes the development and redevelopment of well-designed neighborhoods, public places, commercial corridors, and rural environments.
Like many conferences, CNU-30 had interesting exhibitors, general plenary sessions on various topics, breakout sessions, networking events, award ceremonies, receptions, and parties. However, CNU-30 is different because of its popular tour days. This year participants had the opportunity to tour Tulsa; Oklahoma River Projects; West Village and Film Row; Skirvin Hotel and First National Center; Page Woodson Redevelopment; downtown Edmond; the Wheeler District; Bricktown; The Paseo; Carlton Landing; downtown Norman; Midtown OKC; Uptown and Asian District; and participate in various activities such as Bikes and Breweries, where participants took a three-hour bike tour of local OKC breweries and learned about local architecture, alcohol laws, and biking culture.
I appreciate the efforts of the dedicated individuals, groups, and companies responsible for landing this economically lucrative conference to our community. But what I really think is cool is utilizing the tours and activities to tell the story of our Native American heritage and the story of self-determination, overcoming obstacles, and investing together in ourselves through MAPS – again and again. The slogan said, be part of a brave, bold rebirth of a boomtown and join CNU 30.OKC.
J. David Chapman is professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).