Healthy Urbanism: A New Foundation for Place-Making

From MultiHousingNews.com

Greater automobile mobility and government incentives fueled post-World War II population movement to the suburbs. However, many of the benefits of formerly diverse, dense urban community life were lost–including walkable distances between services and easy access to fresh food. Just one current manifestation of this loss is people’s common practice of driving to a “big box” store to buy a month’s worth of frozen and prepared foods. Healthy urbanism uses strategies to leverage urbanism in a way that typical suburbia cannot: putting people first by emphasizing the health aspects of urban planning and design. When healthy urbanism is the foundation of place-making and design, economic value follows from a walkable environment that enlivens both retail and the residential character of streets and neighborhoods.

Over the past 40 years, innovative city planners and municipalities have recognized and fostered the connections between urban design, human health, and social interaction. Today, visionary multifamily developers are taking these concepts a step further: collaborating with creative planning and design partners and progressive municipalities to create multifamily and mixed-use developments that support healthy urban ideals, including physical activity, social interaction and community safety.

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