Car-Optional Neighborhoods for the New Era
American cities are in a period of rapid change, and an ever-greater focus is needed to make them livable, convenient, beautiful, enduring, and environmentally responsible. This moves urban design to the center of decision-making for both private investors and public leaders and requires strategic rethinking of the dominance of automobiles in our daily lives. This talk will explore new thinking about neighborhood design and street design, including the “Ten Ingredients for Car-Optional Neighborhoods.”
Victor Dover, FAICP, LEED-AP is an urban designer and town planner whose work spans 22 states and five continents. He is known for the designs of Glenwood Park in Atlanta, Georgia, South Main in Buena Vista, Colorado, I’On in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, as well as the downtown plans for many cities including Richmond, Virginia. He co-authored Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns (Wiley, 2014 and 2024), the leading textbook on the subject, and has been awarded both the John Nolen Medal for contributions to urbanism (2010) and the Seaside Prize (2024).
About the Morton B. Gulak Lecture
The Wilder School brings leading experts in planning, architecture, or urban design to VCU each year through the annual Morton B. Gulak Lecture in Urban and Regional Planning.
Launched in 2013, the lecture series honors the memory of Morton B. Gulak, Ph.D., who helped found the Master in Urban and Regional Planning program more than 40 years ago.
Gulak, who passed in 2012, taught at VCU for 38 years. He inspired legions of students in the areas of urban design, urban revitalization, physical planning, and the application of professional planning methods.
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