One of my favorite things about flying is looking down on the urban landscape below. I enjoy picking out landmarks like my inlaws home outside of Milwaukee when en-route from Chicago to Minneapolis, and vividly remember, flying in to New York City for the first time in 1998, having the twin towers jump out at me on the night skyline like one of those three-dimensional puzzles do when you stare at them long enough. For this reason, I enjoy the opening credits of the movie “Up in the Air” very much. Watch it here. Sure, I like to imagine myself…

The board of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has approved a resolution that could have a dramatic impact on urban mixed-use, Main Streets and good development overall. In a partnership with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the National Town Builders Association (NTBA), the resolution by NAHB supports reform of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration’s guidelines for mixed-use development. Currently, Fannie, Freddie and the FHA will not guarantee a mortgage on a development or building that is more than 25% commercial space. The resolution would raise that limit to 45%. This is…

It seems a fundamental part of the design of urban residential buildings is to have individual unit entrances at the ground level. Versus a building with just one common entrance off the sidewalk, individual unit entrances enliven the pedestrian realm, are more pleasant to look at, provide more eyes and activity on the street, create opportunities for more neighbors to meet and interact, and quite simply create a more inviting urban environment and are more neighborly. That is why I’m so happy to report that Klodt Development, at their proposed 64-unit apartment project in Minneapolis, has decided to add seven…