Denver CNU 17 - Original Green, Town Architect, Frontage, & Smart Homes

downtown Denver, Colorado

   You may have read earlier about the Craft session on Thursday at CNU17 in Denver. I’m participating in four other sessions as well, and I promise we’ll do our best to make them well worth your time:

   I’m doing the Original Green session on Wednesday. It will be a one-hour whirlwind tour through the latest Original Green ideas. The Original Green is a fast-developing set of principles that produce real sustainability; if you haven’t seen an Original Green presentation recently, then you’ll see a lot of new stuff that I hope you agree is useful and powerful.

   The Smart, Sustainable & Economical: Homes for the New Era session is Friday. I’ll be participating on a panel with Andrés Duany and Marianne Cusato. I’ll be presenting the New Urban Guild’s Project:SmartDwelling, including SmartDwelling I, which was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. SmartDwellings literally are game-changers. Because they’re significantly less expensive to buy and to operate, many mortgages will be approved that are not being approved for today’s bloated houses.

   Town Architects: The Newest Methods is a Saturday morning session. Jed Selby and Mike Watkins will join me to describe a new Town Architect method that is not only far more effective than older methods, but actually can play a part in restarting new living traditions. Living traditions, as you might know, are the operating systems of the Original Green. They also make the good details easy to produce for the first time in a hundred years, and make them far more affordable, too.

   Private Frontage Secrets is a Saturday afternoon session. Susan Henderson and Eric Brown will be joining me to look at a center of New Urbanist controversy. Detractors regularly attack the New Urbanism for its “cute picket fences and porches.” Supporters have long felt that getting public frontages right was an art form. It turns out that it is a science instead. We’ll look at the details of how private frontage elements work together to set the stage for strangers to get acquainted, and what it takes to turn expensive decoration into valuable outdoor rooms. These ideas literally sell houses... we’ll show you how.

   There’s no doubt that travel budgets are tight to non-existent today for most people right now, but this is stuff you really don’t want to miss. It’s clear that we’re not going to change things by continuing to do what we’ve been doing. Do differently. Come to Denver and equip yourself at CNU 17. Seriously... it’ll be worth it!

   One more thing... today is the last day for early registration rates, so save yourself some money and register now.


~ Steve Mouzon


© The Guild Foundation 2013