Hope VI funds new urban neighborhoods

The first major round of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hope VI grants under the Bush Administration, totaling nearly $500 million, focuses on principles of the New Urbanism. Begun in 1993, the Hope VI program has distributed $4 billion in grants to redevelop failed modernist public housing projects into mixed-use, mixed-income communities. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) was instrumental in providing design guidelines and training for HUD in implementing the program. Architectural firms garnering the most Hope VI work have been CNU members. The latest round of grants shows that the program, developed under the Clinton administration, is moving forward with goals and techniques intact. The Philadelphia firm Wallace Roberts & Todd designed 5 of the 16 projects receiving grants in this round. These developments — accounting for $166.5 million in Hope VI funding in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Jersey City, and Hagerstown (MD) — focus on restoring an urban fabric to blighted superblocks of public housing. The Capitol Gateway project in Atlanta is an example of Wallace Roberts & Todd’s approach, in this case working for the Atlanta Housing Authority. The revitalization, funded in part by a $35-million Hope VI grant, will total $155 million. The site is

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