Why Andrés Duany Is So Focused on Making 'Lean Urbanism' a Thing

It’s getting hard to keep track of all the urbanisms. In the 1990s there was of course the “new urbanism,” anti-sprawl, neo-traditional town planning formally embraced in the Congress for the New Urbanism. That was followed more recently by landscape urbanism, an integration of parks and green infrastructure in cities. And there is tactical urbanism, grassroots, impromptu takeovers of public space with everything from yoga classes to Adirondack chairs.

Comes now Andrés Duany, the cigar-chomping, Cuban-born architect who was a founding member of CNU, with yet another addition to the planning lexicon: lean urbanism. Funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation, Duany is currently on the lecture circuit in an attempt to raise awareness about the red tape that so often stands in the way of even modest projects to improve urban neighborhoods.