Forum Questions:

New Urbanism Index

Interesting piece about Kentlands, but there were two questions that Ray Suarez didn't ask the architect:

1. Is the success of Kentlands consequent on its being in Maryland in the well-heeled DC commuter belt or can we expect similar enterprises to thrive out in the sticks, for example in an Oregon mill town?

2. Can the people who provide the services - shop assistants, cafe staff, repairmen, trash collectors - afford to live in Kentlands, or is it an Maryland version of Aspen, Colorado?

Jeff Speck, co-author of Suburban Nation, responds:

1. The success of other TNDs all over the country suggests that Kentlands is not an isolated phenomenon. Your implied question is whether the specific model represented by Kentlands, based as it was on traditional mid-atlantic villages, would be successful elsewhere, particularly in the countryside. A truly contextual and regional approach, essential to TND, would result in TNDs elsewhere being different from Kentlands, and indeed they are. Our Florida resort towns are modeled after Key West and St. Augustine, our new neighborhood in Wisconsin is modeled after Madison's pre-war suburbs, our Carolinas work is modeled after the Olmsted neighborhoods there, etc... The only place where it might not work, as you suggest, is a place which is so rural that it contains absolutely no history of traditional neighborhoods. Such places are rarely seen as opportunities for TNDs, so we have little documentary evidence. However, Seaside was built in the middle of nowhere, and it became a success by drawing people from Atlanta, Birmingham, etc... So a country location has been proven to work if the draw area is larger than local.

2. Kentlands does a bit better than Seaside which, as a resort, has become very expensive. Kentlands is indeed pricey, but it contains apartments that rent for as little as $650 per month. These prices have been rising because the place has become so desirable. The best a designer can do is build places in which all housing types are integrated, from mansions to garrets. Kentlands accomplishes this, but the prices are still high, in the free market. They will not get any lower unless the government subsidizes rents, which many say it should, so that poor people can live in desirable places. Read Suburban Nation if you'd like to hear more. . .

Prof. Dorn McGrath of George Washington University responds:

Certainly Kentlands benefits from being a niche-market in a very affluebt suburban community in what is arguably one of the most affluent counties in the United States. Someone, perhaps D-Z, should actually try to apply the new urbanism in a woebegone Oregon mill town where no one really knows where the next jobs will come from. The purists tend to argue that the Oregon mill town is already an example of the New Urbanism, but when there is no market and no economic future in prospect, no amount of stylish architecture will satisfy the most basic needs of most communities.

2. Very penetrating question. Given the fact that most properties for sale are offered in the $300-400 thousand bracket, what would you conclude? This is not rocket science.

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