2022 October 20

1000 Friends of Florida Sprawl Repair Webinar

Online

As a part of the Dr. John M. DeGrove webinar series, Galina Tachieva joined 1000 Friends of Florida to discuss the repair of sprawling communities. The structure of the webinar allows for over an hour of densely packed lecture, instruction, and Q&A to properly dissect the prevalent issue of sprawl in modern suburban communities across the country and around the world.

In this presentation, Galina Tachieva discussed strategies to enhance suburban communities as they exist today. Utilizing knowledge and methods found in the Sprawl Repair Manual, she explored ways to introduce connectivity, sense of place, mixed uses, and better, more diverse housing opportunities for communities. The webinar began with an overview of new urban principles and recent development trends and goes on to cover the retrofitting of large areas (shopping centers, office parks, etc.) and bringing smaller-scale, incremental change to neighborhoods with lean sprawl repair tools.

You can view the recording here.

You can also view other webinars in 1000 Friends of Florida’s series here.

2021 December 8

The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with Galina Tachieva

Online

Over a three-part series, Galina Tachieva, Marianne Cusato, and Ben Bolgar had the chance to play the role of both interviewer and interviewee. In each installment, one of the architects was interviewed by one of the others about the influences, experiences, and projects that have led to their design perspective on the architecture of place. At the end of each session, students from partnering university departments posed additional questions to the speakers, followed by an open Q&A with attendees.

In this installment, Galina Tachieva was interviewed by Ben Bolgar, Senior Director at The Prince’s Foundation, on a number of topics, including the ever-pressing urgency to repair sprawling communities following the post-pandemic flight to the suburbs.

You can view the recording here.

You can also view Galina Tachieva’s interview of Marianne Cusato here.

2021 November 29

Sprawl Repair Manual Now Translated Into Bulgarian

Online

The Sprawl Repair Manual has been translated and published by one of the Bulgarian universities in architecture and design, Sofia Municipality, as an online edition. This is a major step in making universally vital information on urban planning and development accessible worldwide. The “Architecture and Town Planning” department, together with the publishing center of the VSU “Chernorizets Hrabar”, the city of Varna, has made this milestone not only possible but a reality.

The manual has been made available electronically and can be downloaded here.

2019 July 12

Just-Right Sizing: How Small and Medium-Scale Interventions Might Solve Our Large Sprawl Problems

Louisville, Kentucky

The member-led session reflected on the significant changes in urban real estate markets over the last two decades that have invigorated downtowns and urban neighborhoods. Many people are forgoing private subdivisions in favor of places with a sense of community. Responding to this shift of preferences, the participants considered how can we address the challenges of economically inefficient sprawl.

The lively interactive roundtable discussion focused on successional development as a way to respond to the risks and vulnerabilities of sprawl. Four themes were addressed:

  • importance of incremental retrofit in a suburban context;
  • ways to mitigate investment risk and other exposure;
  • ways to stem decline before it reaches collapse; and
  • first steps and ability to act quickly. Each roundtable participant will share their expertise, suggest practical tools and techniques, and field questions from delegates.

Editors Notes: The annual Congress for the New Urbanism, now in its twenty-seventh year, is the preeminent national event on building better places. Each year, more than 1,500 attendees convene to hear from speakers, participate in workshops, collaborate on projects, and engage with leaders in dozens of fields.

2019 July 9

An Introduction to Form-Based Coding

Naples, Collier County, Florida

During an interactive presentation, Galina Tachieva highlighted the opportunities for creating better and healthier communities in Collier County using form-based planning and coding.

Collier County is a fast-growing region but the current Land Development Code is complicated and outdated. If done right, new planning strategies can be effective in creating dynamic, walkable communities. These area-specific Form Codes will benefit residents, economics and the environment. It is however important to assist developers and planners understand the importance of smart growth principles. Galina Tachieva, managing partner at DPZ CoDESIGN, and author of the Sprawl Repair Manual and the Smart Code shared her guidance and expertise on these topics.

The Dollars and Sense of Growth – A Collier County Organized Public Event

2018 October 9

Repair and Prepare Our Suburbs for the 21st Century

Charlotte, North Carolina

Galina’s opening keynote presentation positioned Sprawl Repair as a comprehensive and practical method to transform auto-dependent, single-use places into more complete, economically viable communities. It demonstrated how design, regulatory and implementation techniques derived from the “trenches” at all development scales: regional, community, block, building.

Strategies were identified to create economic and social value out of stranded real-estate assets as the demise of the industry that produced sprawl continues:  Malls and office parks are dying; golf courses are closing; McMansions are losing their appeal to Millennials. The presentation not only highlighted why we should retrofit sprawl, but also showed a practical How, Who and When step-by-step path of action forward to a better burb.

Download Galina’s Presentation

Editors NotesRetrofit Magazine held its second-annual one-day conference in October 2018 in Charlotte north Carolina. The conference brought together focused on retrofitting commercial, industrial and institutional buildings.

City Building Exchange, New Orleans, Louisiana

March 8-10, 2017, Andres Duany and Galina Tachieva teamed up with a group of accomplished faculty and community leaders to discuss today’s most effective tools to enhance a community’s character, use city building as an economic development tool, and combat the specialization and professional silos that make city building a challenge.

Andres led a Three Urbanisms Walking Tour through the Garden District, Marigny and the French Quarter, and provided a keynote presentation on LEAN Urbanism: How Small Development Can Produce Big Returns for Cities.

Galina spoke on Sprawl Repair: Recycling Existing Suburban Development into Healthy Town Centers, answering questions such as why sprawl repair is important to a community, what are the common hurdles and challenges, what are the best models of sprawl repair and what potential actions a community can take for a successful implementation of sprawl repair.

Learn more here:

http://citybuildingexchange.com/uploads/5/4/7/5/54756721/cbe_brochure_sp17web.pdf

 

Urbanism Summit Miami 2017

On February 21, 2017, a diverse collection of change-makers, influencers and forward thinkers gathered to discuss the future of cities, their makers and dwellers.  The purpose was to share actionable ideas across disciplines in new urbanism and place making, and spark a movement of collaboration among new urbanism practitioners, investors, startups, policy makers and community.

Tachieva of DPZ, Cooper Copetas, architectural designer and George Cuevas, founder of CollabMiami, teamed up for a panel discussion on how to create co-working space in the context of suburbia that can support small and independent businesses.

Learn more here:

http://urbanismsummit.com/

https://www.facebook.com/events/542068492657980/

2016 June 22

Urban Retail: Essential Planning, Design, and Management Practices

George Gund Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

This fast paced program demonstrates how proven principles of retail development can be combined with the best practices of New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and architectural design to create successful and competitive mixed-use urban commercial centers. Ideal for developers, planners, investors, retailers, architects, and public officials, the program focuses on several topics, among them the required market demographics for various retailers, restaurants, and shopping center typologies including convenience centers, neighborhood centers, power centers, regional malls, and lifestyle centers. The impact of consumer psychographics and techniques for creating place-based brands will also be presented.
Instructors focus on the actual nuts and bolts of how to program, plan, and design competitive retail in historic downtowns, underperforming shopping centers, and new ground-up developments as well as repairing failed suburban centers. The course covers market research, branding, national retailer criteria, and site-selection principles. Participants will learn about streetscape, store planning, signage, tenant mix, merchandising plans, leasing, anchors’ roles, and successful new urban planning techniques, design criteria, parking, building, site planning, and developer requirements. The course will also review the synergy among residential, office, civic, and governmental land uses and retailer performance.
The instructors illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of many leading town centers built during the past 20 years. Discussions of trends and techniques for vertical integration of non-retail uses as well as retail storefront design trends and techniques will be featured, and the instructors will share inside secrets for shopping center planning and design and applications for cities and new towns. Also taken into consideration will be the integration of big-box discount retailers in the city and new town centers.
New features include:
Lessons learned from leading U.S. urban retail developer, Yaromir Steiner.
Lessons learned about creating timeless and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and towns from renowned architect Stefanos Polyzoides.
An overview of Robert Gibbs’ book, Principles of Urban Retail.
A look at the hot urban tenants for 2016.
Case studies for top urban town centers and historic downtowns.
Learning Objectives:
Explore planning and design techniques for revitalizing historic town centers and building new mixed-use town (lifestyle) centers.
Review the rise and fall of American cities as regional shopping destinations.
Apply nuts and bolts techniques for increasing retail sales through streetscape, parking, signage, and pedestrian movements.
Examine a successful New Urbanist model for integrating retail into existing historic downtowns, new developments, and suburban retrofits.
Gain an insider’s understanding of leading retailers and department store business models and site selection criteria.
Register Now

Build a Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council

milwaukeerevitalization

We’re taking Sprawl Retrofit to the next level. Next month, our movement’s leaders convene in the Miami Design District for the first-ever Build A Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council. Over two days, attendees will collaborate and strategize around how to transform sprawling suburbs into prosperous, vibrant, walkable places.

Help set the agenda for the next generation of suburban transformation. You are invited to join the conversation for leveraging the power of lean policies, sustainability, and small incremental development. With the goal of kick-starting projects and transforming more suburbs, the agenda will focus on five areas of opportunity: municipalities, citizens, developers, finance, and equity.

CNU Councils gather high-level practitioners for discussion on placemaking, community building, policy, and design. The Build a Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council will focus on the intersection between sprawl retrofit, suburban design, small incremental development, sustainability, and fast, cost-effective tactics that can kick-start projects.

The Build a Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council is open to all practitioners who have been active in suburban retrofit. Please feel free to share the opportunity to register with your colleagues, friends, and connections in sprawl retrofit and placemaking.

Venue: Palm Court, located at the heart of the Miami Design District, will serve as a fitting site for inspired conversation. More Information.

Accommodations: The Miami Design District is located between downtown Miami and Miami Beach, putting a full range of accommodations within reach. More Information.

Registration: $150 for CNU members and $175 non-members.

Questions: Email Will Herbig, will@cnu.org.

START: Saturday, March 19, 2016 – 07:30
END: Sunday, March 20, 2016 – 15:00
LOCATION: Miami Design District | Miami, FL

2015 November 18

Sprawl Repair for Florida’s Communities

DPZ Partners’ Galina Tachieva and Codina Partners’ Ana-Marie Codina Barlick will discuss how form-based codes and other planning and design tools can help Florida communities repurpose and revitalize their most auto-dependent zones into walkable and vibrant mixed-use nodes.

2015 October 15

ROWE ROME 2015: The Best of Both Worlds, Regenerating the Light City

House of Representatives, Rome, Italy

An International Conference on Urban Design

The ideal thing would be to have a good American
suburb adjacent to a very concentrated Italian
town, then you’d have the best of both worlds.
Colin Rowe

For the last half century, urban design has been devoted to the reappraisal and the regeneration of the existing city, considered in its traditional form as a dense, compact fabric. Research, design methodology and implementation in this vein have been significant from both a qualitative and a quantitative point of view.

During virtually the same period, however, the urban fringe – the light city or “ville légère” – was instead notoriously neglected as a subject unworthy of serious urban debate. This situation has arisen despite the fact that the lower-density zone, between the urban core or the dense periphery and the proper agricultural land has become a ubiquitous phenomenon in the landscape, affecting people around the globe. Different national and geographical contexts have resulted in a variety of configurations and organizations: from the formal suburbia, typical of the Anglo-Saxon metropolises, to the favelas and other illegal settlements in developing countries, to the semi-spontaneous, semi-illegal perimeter, mostly of onefamily houses of the Italian “città diffusa”. Until fairly recently, all have shared a common fate of being deliberately ignored or simply overlooked as having insufficient value or only marginal impact on the discipline or profession.

Main stream studies and criticism have supported a negative attitude towards low density settlements, considered costly, environmentally unfriendly and generally non-sustainable. Recent studies, however, have successfully critiqued this conventional wisdom and in so doing have propelled the debate between city vs. suburbs to new and promising levels of discourse.

Whatever the specific parameters of this argument may be, however, two circumstances cannot be overlooked. First, there is widespread pressure for urban sprawl due to powerful cultural, economic, social, anthropological factors. Second, official policies have tended to deny the underlying causes, which have generated this phenomenon rather than proactively addressing them. The urgent challenge will be, it seems obvious, is to offer solutions that are able to positively guide the making of low-density landscapes while addressing the same set of needs and desires, which made them attractive in the first place.

Most importantly, the conference organizers believe, the ville légère, suburbia, middle landscape, città diffusa, campagna abitata, arcadia, along with all the varieties that exist already have a relevant role in the morphology and in the functioning of metropolitan areas as well as in the ordinary lives of millions of people. In most cases, however, their performance is unsatisfactory both in concept and application. The complexity of the problem on the one hand and the unexpected opportunities on the other has typically been underestimated. Rather than adopting mere prohibitionist policies, it is proposed that contemporary urbanistics should study and implement regenerating actions through critical design efforts.

Today, several important contributions converging from different research and practice areas are beginning to emerge: descriptive and evaluation studies on sprawl; transect and other typo-morphological research and projects; sprawl repair and retrofit classification and case studies; densification and morphological and functional redevelopment; studies on lowdensity and garden city design; studies on lean urbanism. This is an ambitious and wide range of potential contributions, not too wide or ambitious, however, if one considers their profound relevance to urbanistics.

Ideally a more inclusive and comprehensive idea of urban design could offer to the “suburb” something comparable to the disciplinary production it has been providing to the “concentrated town”. Then you would actually have the best of both worlds.

2015 June 11

CNU Utah Sprawl Repair Webinar

Sprawl Repair can be defined as transforming fragmented, isolated, and car-dependent development into “complete communities.

Sprawl remains the prevailing growth pattern across the United States even though experts in planning, economics and environmental issues have long denounced it as wasteful, inefficient, and unsustainable.  Sprawl is a principal cause of lost open space and natural habitat as well as increases in air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, infrastructure costs, and even obesity. It also plays a primary role in the housing meltdown plaguing the nation. This begs the question: is it possible to repair our sprawling suburbs and create more livable, robust, and eco-sensitive communities where they do not exist?

Galina Tachieva is an expert on sustainable planning, urban redevelopment, sprawl repair, and form-based codes. As a partner and Director of Town Planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Architects and Town Planners (DPZ), Tachieva directs and manages the design and implementation of projects in the US and around the world.  Galina is also the author of the Sprawl Repair Manual, an award-winning publication and the first of its kind to focus on the retrofit of auto-centric suburban places into complete, walkable communities.  Hailing from Bulgaria, where she received her degree in architecture, Galina later completed her master’s in urban design at the University of Miami, Florida.  She is certified AICP, LEED-AP, and is a CNU Fellow.

2015 June 5

Stranded Real Estate Assets: Changing Economy, Changing Land Use

The War Memorial, Trenton, New Jersey

Once New Jersey’s model of economic development, large office and retail suburban centers are increasingly underutilized and causing a drain on the local economies. Local leaders find it difficult to create consensus and a shared vision for development, in part due to antiquated land use practices. PlanSmart NJ’s 4th Annual Regional Planning Summit, Stranded Real Estate Assets: Changing Economy, Changing Land Use will bring together experts in planning, redevelopment, and infrastructure to reveal the magnitude of the problem and explore methods to break through common barriers to transform New Jersey’s suburbs into resilient and livable communities where people can live, work, and play.

11:50 – 12:50 pm: Keynote Speaker: Galina Tachieva, AICP – PRESENTATION
Galina Tachieva, author of Sprawl Repair Manual will describe how suburban corporate office parks and retail centers can be repurposed and redesigned to function better in the regional context. She will demonstrate how bold actions can lead to more resilient and equitable communities.

2014 May 1

Tri-County Regional Planning Commission Annual Dinner Keynote Speech

Harrisburg, PA

Galina Tachieva, AICP, is delivering the keynote speech at the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission’s 2014 Annual Dinner. In her speech, she will detail her work in planning, urban design and new urbanism, and she will reference information contained in her book, “The Sprawl Repair Manual.” The book is a veritable toolkit for planners explaining practices for creating more livable communities. This event offers planners a chance to hear about strategies for tackling sprawl with examples that are proven to work. Galina Tachieva brings more than two decades of planning knowhow and practical experience to the event. The presentation offers information that will enhance a planner’s ability to do his or her job by relaying best practices and professional advice. Attendees will learn what works and what doesn’t when they’re facing projects in areas with dispersed development. They’ll hear how to turn these sprawl-filled areas into livable, vibrant communities that contain residential, commercial and recreation areas accessible for transit, bicycling and walking. The keynote speech is scheduled to be an hour in duration.

2012 December 13

Ivory Press Roundtable Discussion

Madrid, Spain

Galina Tachieva wrote an essay for Robert Harding Pittman’s book Anonymization, just published in Europe and in the US. With a forward by Bill McKibben, the book is a photographic critique of the globalization of sprawl. Galina’s essay presents some optimistic ideas on how to deal with this phenomenon by reusing and repairing the already built.

2012 October 18

The Old Urbanism, New Urbanism, and the Future of Urbanism

Costa do Sauipe, Bahia, Brazil

2012 August 29

A Short History of the Future

Stockholm, Sweden

James Howard Kunstler, writer and expert, and Galina Tachieva, partner and Director of Town Planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, discussed “A short history of the future” in Stockholm.

2012 May 10

The Importance of The Sprawl Repair Initiative

West Palm Beach, Florida

Can we heal our sprawling communities through retrofit, repair and redevelopment? This working group will review new ideas in sprawl retrofit design, regulation, and implementation to achieve healthier communities. Attendees will discuss approaches to incremental sprawl repair, corridor retrofits, regional strategies and financial approaches building on work completed during the March Retreat in Miami. The session will start with four speed presentations selected through a competition process. Following the speed presentations, initiative members will report on a series of practical Toolkits, newly formed partnerships and an overall strategic plan and next steps for the upcoming year.

2012 July 20

Sprawl Repair in Florida: From Auto Scale to Human Scale

West Palm Beach, Florida

No Other Choice But Repair

The reconstruction of sprawl is inevitable. To continue building greenfield sprawl will be disastrous. To abandon existing sprawl will not be possible either, as the expanse of sprawl represents a vast investment of money, infrastructure, time, human energy, and dreams. The only valid option is to repair sprawl by finding ways to reuse and reorganize as much of it as possible into complete, livable, robust communities. However, sprawl repair will not be the instant and total overhaul of communities as promoted so destructively in American cities half a century ago. Sprawl repair will be the incremental and opportunistic improvement of our suburban landscapes and will happen first in places where economic potential, political will, and community vision converge.

2012 May 11

Sprawl Retrofit Initiative – The Economic Benefit of Good Urbanism

West Palm Beach, Florida

Urbanism has been engaged by most municipalities as an apologetic or alternative form of development, to the perceived “market driven” sprawl that most communities face. Yet innovative financial and policy analysis has demonstrated that mixed-use development is not only more beneficial for the environment, but also the fiscally responsible form of growth. This session explores analytic tools, property policy, as well as design strategies that can repair the larger urban fabric. The panel will explain and de-mystify tax policy, as well as a walk through of the communication tools that will help planners and decision makers understand urban design alternatives. We not only focus on solutions to repair our built environment, but to steal a line from the movie Jerry Maguire, we are going to “Show you the money!”

2012 April 12

Retrofitting Sprawl

Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona

Suburban retrofitting (also known as sprawl repair) is the retrofitting of abandoned chain stores, dead malls, disconnected apartment complexes, and segregated housing pods. The endgame of suburban retrofitting— walkable, mixed use, sustainable neighborhoods — is not substantially different from what planners have been trying to do for decades. The problem is the development pattern that has defined so much of our built environment: wide arterials, separation of uses, huge parking lots, and complete car dependency.

The push for repair goes beyond the need to stimulate new forms of investment. Sprawl repair aims to reduce energy use, reuse existing infrastructure rather than building anew, and provide denser, more walkable housing options in response to demographic change. Unlike green building or technological approaches to sustainability, however, sprawl repair can require substantial behavioral change — the prioritization of walking, an acceptance of more compact living, and tolerance for social diversity and land use heterogeneity. This transformation is going to require big thinking and political moxy.

This Initiative will provide an opportunity to fully explore how planners and designers might use their skills to transform “a thousand-square-mile oasis of ranch homes, back yards, shopping centers, and dispersed employment based on personal mobility” — as sprawl in Phoenix was recently described (Gammage, 2008) — into something more sustainable. In suburban retrofit, failed malls are converted to main streets, McMansions become apartment buildings, and big box stores are re-envisioned as agricultural land. The projects can be small, like “pulse development” along a corridor, or they can be much larger. The Phoenix Urban Research Lab Initiative will explore these possibilities for the Phoenix region from multiple perspectives.

2012 January 20

Keynote Lecture

Orange County Planning Division, Orlando, FL

Why do we need sprawl repair? Exurban is too expensive to build and not sustainable environmentally.
Must rethink the model for health and well-being. We’ve been deprived of the simple and natural activity of walking due to the way we have built our communities. We’ve built in a grand scale since the introduction of the car, but we need to build on a human scale.
More urban environments are being sought by younger generations. (a recurring theme)
Think of long-term – how will the next generation benefit?
Higher density desired by younger actually performs better – more in municipal taxes, environmentally, well-being
Most foreclosures in the exurbs. Affordability is wiped out by the long commute.
Wall Street is using walkscore.com as an underwriting tool.
Streets and thoroughfares have a social function, and we have forgotten this.
Arterials to be adapted when go they through certain areas. Fast traffic kills real estate. (Harping on it, but think CR 535 through Lakeside Village). Repair slowly. Start with landscaping and expand sidewalk.

2011 October 8

Sprawl: Past, Present, Future

BMW Guggenheim Lab, New York, New York

Sprawl: the uncontrolled spread of urban development into neighboring regions. Explore this multifaceted concept with June Williamson, author of Retrofitting Suburbia, as she moderates a discussion on the history, development, and future of sprawl with panelists Rachel Heiman, an urban anthropologist at the New School specializing in the comforts and anxieties of the American middle class; Galina Tachieva, an urban planner and author of The Sprawl Repair Manual; and Christoph Gielen, a photographer exploring sprawl and the intersection of art and environmental politics through photographic aerial studies of infrastructure.

2011 June 1

Retrofitting Suburbia 202

Madison, Wisconsin

Galina Tachieva is an expert on urban redevelopment, sprawl retrofit, sustainable planning and form-based codes. As a partner at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Architects and Town Planners (DPZ), Tachieva directs and manages the design and implementation of projects in the United States and around the world. She is the author of the Sprawl Repair Manual, published October, 2010 by Island Press. She is the primary author of the Sprawl Repair Module, a special application to the SmartCode, which enables the transformation of sprawl types into community patterns. Galina is one of the leaders of the CNU Sprawl Retrofit Initiative, a founding member of the Congress for European Urbanism, a member of the Transect Codes Council, a board member of the New Urban Guild Foundation, and is certified by the US Green Building Council as a LEED-accredited professional.

2011 June 3

Sprawl Retrofit at the Macro Scale

Madison, Wisconsin

Galina Tachieva: There is a difference between suburbs and sprawl. Older suburbs were walkable.
Municipal tax revenues INPROVE in new, denser development and commercial sectors.

2011 June 3

Sprawl Retrofit Initiative Lunch

Madison, Wisconsin

2011 June 3

Sprawl Retrofit: Action!

Madison, Wisconsin

2011 April 19

Creating Choices and Improving Quality of Life through Repair and Redevelopment: Tools for Columbus & Ohio

AIA Columbus, Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is a city pursuing its potential – revitalizing its downtown, infilling the edges, attracting businesses, students and young professionals. But can the city and its metropolitan region grow in a manner that is viable for the long-term? The best chance – and opportunity – is to create new choices within existing communities by making them more walkable, livable, and diverse. Quality of life of residents will improve and will make the city, the region and the state competitive for the future. Galina Tachieva, author of the Sprawl Repair Manual will present an innovative toolbox for redeveloping and updating aging suburban patterns through regional, community and micro-scale strategies based on high-quality place-making and sustainable infrastructure. These holistic solutions can bolster the economy, the environment and the community.