Wise Acres:
America's New Traditional Neighborhoods
by Jason Miller

Northwest Landing, Washington. Photo by Michael Seidl Photography.

When our country returned to peace after World War II, we fled the cities in droves and settled into the suburbs to raise our families. We believed the suburbs would deliver privacy, serenity and less crime. We thought we had joined a community. We thought we'd done the right thing. Forty years later, public discontent over the lack of community in fragmented suburban developments prompted several visionary developers, architects, town planners and social commentators to revisit the planning philosophy behind the towns and neighborhoods that dotted America's landscape during the pre-war decades. They felt the suburbs were at best unpleasant, and at worst dehumanizing and unlivable.

Suburban streets (above), overly wide, lacking sidewalks and riddled with cul-de-sacs, simply can't deliver the comfort and safety of TND streets. Photos by Richard McLaughlin.

Enter the traditional neighborhood development (TND), patterned after the neighborhoods that flourished during the 1920s. Seaside, Fla., the first modern-day TND, made its appearance in 1981. It has since been followed by well over 100 TNDs all across the United States—each with its own regional atmosphere and architecture. But it is the departure from suburban development that remains TNDs' strongest selling point.

Worlds Apart

The lower half of this drawing (above) shows a suburban development, where families are separated from schools, shopping, workplaces and restaurants by "buffers"—usually thick hedges or berms. The only way to access commercial and community facilities is to climb into the car and drive to them via a congested arterial road. The TND interpretation (upper half) integrates the neighborhood elements, placing them within a 15-minute walk of all residences. Note that more open space is preserved, even though both development examples contain the same number of houses, apartments, shops and offices. Graphic by Richard McLaughlin.

Newpoint, a TND near Beaufort, South Carolina, lines its narrower streets with sidewalks and trees, transforming the streets into an amenity instead of a hazard. Photo by Jason Miller.

Traditional neighborhood developments differ from suburban developments in two major ways: land use, and integration of the elements that make up a neighborhood (see graphic at right). Typical suburban developments section off large chunks of land, fill them with one type of building (single-family homes, town houses, apartments, parks, retail stores, schools, churches, civic buildings, etc.) and connect them with roads. TNDs blend these key elements of the neighborhood into a cohesive pattern, sometimes called the "fabric" of the neighborhood. Single-family homes, town houses and apartments occupy the same block, often overlooking a common park. Inside the residences, the variety continues in the same way it once did: all manner of people, families, ages and incomes lend depth to the neighborhood. Another way to understand the TND concept is to compare it to your living room. Do you put all your chairs in one corner, all your end tables in another, all your lamps in the third corner and all your floral arrangements in the fourth, and then separate them with screens? Of course not! You blend all the elements together into a pleasing, comfortable environment. So it is with TNDs.

Streets
Since up to 80 percent of a neighborhood is made up of streets, TND developers turn the streets into an amenity. Instead of 80-foot-wide lanes of asphalt that encourage people to speed, TND neighborhood streets are narrower (20 to 28 feet wide), slowing traffic. A variety of homes form a protective row along the street, ensuring many "eyes on the street," which increases safety. Tall trees spread their canopies over the streets and sidewalks, along which passersby stroll. Rarely do driveways disrupt the flow of sidewalks or streets; instead, garages are rear- or side-loaded, via a service lane at the back of the home.

Perhaps the most practical element of TND streets is that they actually lead somewhere. Cul-de-sacs are rare. No "loop streets" circle back on themselves. Traditional neighborhood streets run through the neighborhood in what town planners refer to as a "modified grid" system, which allows automobile traffic to disperse in a measured fashion, rather than clogging up an arterial road. James Constantine, a market researcher and analyst with the Princeton, N.J., office of Looney Ricks Kiss Architects, Inc., says the interconnectedness of TND streets is more than skin deep. "Connected streets reinforce the entire fabric of the neighborhood, tying neighbors not just to those folks next door, but to neighbors from other communities and beyond."

An aerial view of conventional suburbia (left) and Harbor Town (right), a neotraditional development in Memphis, Tennessee. Note the difference in street design, housing density and connectedness. Left photo by James Constantine/Looney Ricks Kiss; right photo courtesy of Jim Hilliard Aerial Surveys.

While TNDs accommodate the automobile, they do not allow it to dominate. "In general, a strong pedestrian orientation is an integral element of TNDs," says Don Johnson of The Lander Group, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based development firm. "To achieve this orientation, many developers use sidewalks, street trees and buildings that 'address' the street; that is, they are close to the street and help to form a comfortable enclosure for pedestrians."

As

TND homes, such as this one in King Farm, Md., deliver updated interiors that cater to today's varied lifestyles. Photo by Jason Miller.

passersby walk past TND homes, they see facades that hold true to pure architectural styles, plus landscaping that is often meticulously cared for by the homeowners. Not as readily apparent are the homes' interiors, which are updated to cater to today's varied lifestyles. Gone are the tiny master suites and impractical kitchens. Extras, such as media rooms, dens and exercise rooms, are not uncommon.

Outside, owners of TND homes find a key amenity that suburban developments promised but never delivered: privacy. An example of privacy perfected is found in Harbor Town, a mature TND in Memphis, Tennessee. Here, side-yard homes (among other types) line the street and provide sumptuous private spaces, which the owners have transformed into outdoor rooms. Some residents sculpt their side yards into lush gardens, which are judged each spring by the neighbors!

Tacking a deck to a suburban home (left) does not deliver privacy, since suburban development is not conducive to true privacy. In Harbor Town, Tennessee (right), residents transform their side yards into gloriously private havens. Left photo courtesy of Design House, Inc.; right photo by Jason Miller.

Left: In an effort to draw the eye away from an overbearing garage, architects sometimes overdo (or "explode") the front entry, which destroys the home's proportions. On the other end of the spectrum (right), this home by architect Emilio Miniscalco downplays the garage and delivers a well-proportioned facade to passersby. Photos by Jason Miller.

Conventional retail (left) places shops behind an ocean of a parking lot, lessening both visual appeal and accessibility. Traditional design, such as that found in the Linden Hills neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minn. (right), brings the stores forward to the streets, provides on-street parking and often includes apartments on the second and third floors. Photos by Richard McLaughlin.

Community

These cottages in Northwest Landing, Wash., look out over a shared green space that serves as a playground, a picnic area, and a spot that allows residents to say "I bumped into so-and-so today . . ." Photo courtesy of Michael Seidl Photography.

A sidewalk in Newpoint, South Carolina. Photo by Jason Miller.

Kentlands, Md., resident Elly Shaw-Belblidia visits while tending her lilies. "Kentlands is exceedingly social," she says. "Someone's always stopping to chat." Photo by Jason Miller.

It's difficult to define and quantify, but we all want it in some form. "Community" is a word that is quickly pounced upon by realtors' sales offices. Delivering community, however, is much more challenging than promising it on a development's entrance sign. Proponents of TNDs feel that suburban developments come up short in providing true community, since they work within established zoning laws and building codes, which, more often than not, forbid many of the elements that foster community.

What is needed to deliver true community to a neighborhood? Johnson cites walkable streets, plus public spaces that are accessible to the whole neighborhood. "Pocket (small) parks and pocket playgrounds—sometimes called 'tot lots'—are excellent community-building elements," he says. "People meet while letting the kids play; they strike up a conversation and connect with each other."

Village greens, gazebos and civic buildings also allow neighbors to casually interact as they go about their day. These elements contribute to the canvas of what Vince Graham—developer of Newpoint, a TND near Beaufort, S.C.—refers to as "civic art." Graham is particularly attentive to the concept of community and what it takes to provide it. "Many suburban developments promise community and privacy, but their design destroys it as more and more homes are built. In a TND, the level of community increases as homes are added, due in large part to the design of the neighborhood."

The Verdict
What do people who live in TNDs have to say? Elly Shaw-Belblidia, a resident of Kentlands, Md., says that its open, friendly community is one of the neighborhood's greatest draws. She and her family moved to Kentlands (sight unseen!) from Switzerland in 1994; so far, she has few complaints.

"It's exceedingly social," she says. "I know many people and am encouraged at the impact I can have on my neighborhood." Shaw-Belblidia chairs the landscaping committee, which maintains the public green spaces within Kentlands.

She recognizes the street-as-an-amenity concept. "Here, there is a sense of ownership of the street," she says. "You just can't find that in a development full of cul-de-sacs."

However, TNDs such as Kentlands aren't for everyone, she warns: "If you want to hang your laundry in your yard and put your compost bin out in plain sight, or if you don't want everyone to know when you're outside, Kentlands isn't for you!"

The Future of TNDs

Photo by James Constantine/Looney Ricks Kiss.

As the TND concept continues to seep into the public consciousness, as home buyers become aware of the planning behind the architecturally pure facades, more traditional neighborhoods will be built. For now, the biggest hurdles are local governing bodies, which often feel, for example, that TND streets are too narrow for fire trucks to pass through; and developers and builders who fear the development won't sell as well as its suburban competitor.

But home buyers all over the United States, tired of the cookie-cutter homes and "placeless" doldrums of suburbia, are putting their money where their mouths are. Newpoint is appreciating at astonishing rates. So is Seaside. At Kentlands, market researchers found that home buyers are willing to pay $30,000 more for their home, because of the neighborhood of which it is a part.

These home buyers recognize and choose the new traditional neighborhoods not simply for the homes that fill them. They choose them for their intelligent, careful design and their offering of an elusive amenity sorely lacking in the suburban developments of past decades: community.