Kaid Benfield

Neighborhood-building

Director, Sustainable Commuities and Smart Growth, NRDC; co-founder, LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, Sep 24, 10.

Tagged with video, tod, neighborhood, portland, calthorpe

California-based architect and co-founder of new urbanism Peter Calthorpe was one of my early inspirations for getting into this field. Reading Peter’s work in the mid-1990s, I felt for the first time that I had a positive vision to advocate as an alternative to sprawl.

Among his substantial contributions to sustainability, I’m not sure if Peter coined the phrase “transit-oriented development,” but he certainly popularized it. I mention that because this awesome little video in which Peter appears purports to be about Portland and TOD. But, really, I think the title is misleading: it isn’t so much about TOD as about the elements of a complete, walkable neighborhood, whether or not it is also transit-oriented. And, although the photography happens to show Portland, the narrative doesn’t (and needn’t) mention any particular location. This is about simply about good neighborhood-building, period. Enjoy: