Crawford Square - New Urbanist Design

New Urbanist Design

Although Crawford Square was explicitly planned as a New Urbanist community, several key aspects of its design seem to contradict the goals of New Urbanism. The principles of New Urbanism call for higher densities, mixed uses, pedestrian accessibility, public transit, and the protection of natural environments—all in contrast to the sprawling suburbs of the American landscape. Crawford Square's deliberate accommodation of the automobile, lack of public transit, and non-integrated land use (all residential) are the most outstanding failures of Crawford Square to uphold New Urbanism; however, other features are more consistent with New Urbanism. The development's housing architecture and design were based on the local history and the topography of area (modifications were made to the structures based on the steep grade). The housing was designed after the traditional housing of the same area, but the Crawford Square landscape is quite visually distinct from the adjacent older streetscapes of the Hill District.

Crawford Square achieves mixed-use of land by incorporating public parks and community spaces, but it contains no commercial activity at all. There are no stores or commercial properties found in the Crawford Square project. On the other hand, it respects the desire for public space and encourages pedestrianism by offering wide sidewalks, off-street parking, and parks within walking distance. Next, the design of Crawford Square reinforces safety and security by including a lighting system. It also was specifically design to exclude any semi-private or "no-man's-land" spaces that were characteristic of mid-century housing projects and criticized strongly by notable authors such as Jane Jacobs. Perhaps because of the inclusion of safety features crime statistics from 2003, three years after the project was completed, show an encouraging trend. In a composite of violent crimes, Crawford Square falls just below the Pittsburgh average (Pittsburgh: 5.85 crimes /100 persons, Crawford-Roberts: 5.73/100) and significantly below the adjacent Middle Hill (at 8.07/100).