CNU Charter Awards 2009 Entry Form: A Model Code

Andrés Duany, architect, urban designer, planner and author, has dedicated over three decades to pioneering a vision for sustainable urban development and its implementation.
Duany’s leadership can be credited with the plan and code for Seaside, the first new traditional community; the Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) zoning ordinance; the development of the SmartCode, a form-based zoning code, adopted by numerous municipalities seeking to encourage compact, mixed-use, walkable communities; the definition of the rural to urban Transect and Agrarian Urbanism; as well as inventive affordable housing designs, including Carpet Cottages and Cabanons.
Duany’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Richard Driehaus Award, the Jefferson Medal, The Vincent Scully Prize and several honorary doctorates.

DPZ was founded in 1980 by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk as an architectural practice. Identifying the deficiencies of the suburban context for their early buildings led to a rediscovery of neighborhood structure and influenced the design of Seaside, acclaimed for its traditional town plan, streetscapes and buildings.
Recognizing the need for an alternative to suburban zoning, the firm proposed a re-integration of urban components with the Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) in 1990. The TND became a model regulation for compact mixed-use neighborhood design, informing hundreds of municipal ordinances throughout the country.
With several new communities well underway, Duany and Plater-Zyberk joined contemporaries to found the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) in 1993. CNU’s charter, annual meetings and numerous policy initiatives, are guiding an international movement of sustainable urban growth and community design. The firm’s subsequent initiatives have generated documents that reflect DPZ’s commitment to ‘open source’ – the Lexicon, SmartCode, Transect, Lean Urbanism, Sprawl Repair, Light Imprint, among them.