While many older American cities struggle to remain vibrant, New Brunswick has transformed itself, adapting to new forms of commerce and a changing population, and enjoying a renaissance that has led many experts to cite this New Jersey city as a model for urban redevelopment. Featuring more than 100 remarkable photographs and many maps, New Brunswick, New Jersey explores the history of the city since the seventeenth century, with an emphasis on the dramatic changes of the past few decades. Using oral histories, archival materials, census data, and surveys, authors David Listokin, Dorothea Berkhout, and James W. Hughes illuminate the decision-making and planning process that led to New Brunswick’s dramatic revitalization, describing the major redevelopment projects that demonstrate the city’s success in capitalizing on funding opportunities. These projects include the momentous decision of Johnson & Johnson to build its world headquarters in the city, the growth of a theater district, the expansion of Rutgers University into the downtown area, and the destruction and rebuilding of public housing. But while the authors highlight the positive effects of the transformation, they also explore the often heated controversies about demolishing older neighborhoods and ask whether new building benefits residents. Shining a light on both the successes and failures in downtown revitalization, they underscore the lessons to be learned for national urban policy, highlighting the value of partnerships, unwavering commitment, and local leadership. Today, New Brunswick’s skyline has been dramatically altered by new office buildings, residential towers, medical complexes, and popular cultural centers. This engaging volume explores the challenges facing urban America, while also providing a specific case study of a city’s quest to raise its economic fortunes and retool its economy to changing needs.

This monograph presents papers from the 2000 Mayors' Institute on City Design and the public forum that followed it. Essays include: "Schools for Cities: Urban Strategies" (Sharon Haar); "Reenvisioning Schools; The Mayors' Questions" (Leah Ray); "Why Johnny Can't Walk to School" (Constance E. Beaumont); "Lessons from the Chicago Public Schools Design Competition" (Cindy S. Moelis and Beth Valukas); "Something from Ǹothing': Information Infrastructure in School Design" (Sheila Kennedy); "An Architect's Primer for Community Interaction" (Julie Eizenberg); "The City of Learning: Schools as Agents for Urban Revitalization" (Roy Strickland); and "Education and the Urban Landscape: Illinois Institute of Technology" (Peter Lindsay Schaudt). Case Studies include: "Prototypes and Paratypes: Future Studies" (Sharon Haar); "Lick-Wilmerding High School, San Francisco" (Pfau Architecture Ltd.); "Architecture of Adjustment, New York City' (kOnyk Architecture); "Booker T. Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Dallas" (Allied Works Architecture Inc.); "Camino Nuevo Middle School, Los Angeles" (Daley, Genik Architects); "Elementary School Prototypes, Chicago Public Schools" (OWP/P Architects). (Contains 31 bibliographic references.) (SM).