CNU New England organizes meaningful events that bring together a cross-disciplinary network of professionals and advocates who work arm-in-arm to build strong cities and towns.

Why we’re here

We exist to change the world around us for the better.

We believe in a more healthy, equitable, place-based approach to building communities throughout New England, and we seek to be a voice that brings realistic and creative options to the challenges of our built environment, while bearing in mind the inherently inequitable social, cultural, and political structures within which we all operate.

What we do

We connect research, policy, and practice to design details that are often overlooked in order to change the way we create better and more equitable, sustainable, and healthy places by marshalling a community of interdisciplinary professionals and embracing a broad-based citizenry.

We share tools, skills, and know-how to implement the principles outlined in the Charter for the New Urbanism to provide connections across all sectors of planning and development.

We seek to be a bridge between the great ideas coming out of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and our local New England communities – we are the “how” of community building.

Who we are

We represent a community of practice, including all the disciplines that impact the built environment, who believe good urbanism should be inherent and that everyone deserves good design.

As a chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, CNU-NE is a nonprofit organization that supports public and private sector leaders, community activists, and multidisciplinary professionals dedicated to reestablishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community, through citizen-based participatory planning and design.

How we work

Our mission is to:

• Educate the public and the development community about the benefits of New Urbanist planning, design and development

• Support the implementation of projects consistent with the principles of New Urbanism at the local, state, and regional levels

• Encourage the adoption of policies and regulations that promote healthy, equitable urbanism

• Seek to reverse, in all of our work, the effects of systemic inequalities as enabled by planning and built environment decisions and frameworks

• Deliver on the promise of the Charter—to build and make economically viable, stable, and environmentally healthy communities within a coherent physical framework— which we recognize can only be fulfilled by identifying and confronting exclusionary policies, practices, and behaviors; empowering those who have been most affected; and committing ourselves to accelerating actions and strategies that foster more inclusive communities.

CNU New England’s work is guided by the Charter for the New Urbanism. Our goal is to affect change through education and advocacy that reflect the principles and practices defined within it.