Douglas Kelbaugh, dean of architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan, and author of “Repairing the American Metropolis,” will look at urban sprawl and its alternatives, during his lecture, today, Friday, Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall auditorium. Kelbaugh’s talk is featured as the Pearl Fellow Lecture.
Photo: Douglas Kelbaugh
“Modernism gave us single use zoning and suburban sprawl, which have become unsustainable environmentally, economically and socially. Two promising alternatives are TOD – Transit-Oriented-Development – which clusters mixed-use development around a transit stop, and TND – Traditional Neighborhood Development – which promotes pedestrian-scaled, mixed-use neighborhoods. Both seek to be compact, walkable, bikable, and less automobile dependent, with a diverse population and robust, street-oriented public realm,” Kelbaugh said.
Chris Wilson, the UNM School of Architecture and Planning’s JB Jackson Professor of Cultural Landscape Studies, said, “With the new Rail Runner and Rapid Ride bus lines linked to mixed-use infill up and down Central, Albuquerque has entered the era of Transit Oriented Neighborhoods. Since the publication of his ‘Pedestrian Pocket Handbook’ in 1989, Douglas Kelbaugh has been a leader of this movement toward sustainable development.
“In his talks and recent book, ‘Repairing the American Metropolis,’ Kelbaugh is one of the most accessible interpreters of suburbia and of New Urbanist alternatives.
“Kelbaugh has made the University of Michigan, where he is dean of the architecture school, the leading center for the debate between the Modernist and New Urbanist approaches. He is evenhanded in helping to define strategies for metropolitan development that builds on both stances.”