Mr Charles Renner

Cnu Illinois 7: Ready, Set, Plan Mr Charles Renner

Publisher Marketing: As a state-wide chapter of the national organization, CNU Illinois works to support national initiatives as well as addresses local issues affecting Illinois. This year's worth of educational and inspirational programming included holding an annual state conference, hosting happy hours, speaking events, urban excursion walking tours of significant projects and an annual awards program to recognize outstanding examples of New Urbanism in Illinois. This year's programming also explored urban agriculture in our first event co-hosted with the Illinois Chapter of the US Green Building Council. The first section of this year's journal, "Knowledge," highlights the expert content provided by our speakers. The southern and eastern communities of Chicago's metropolitan area were the geographical setting for this year's presentations, providing a rich environmental and cultural context to explore the relationship between the natural environment and imprint made by human development. The second section of this year's journal highlights "Experience." Our events are opportunities for participants to not only receive professionally- relevant information, but also to connect that knowledge to their own personal experiences and to have the chance to interact with other participants. This year's conference included three such participation opportunities. First, our "Regional Heritage Luncheon" featured a custom-created menu to showcase the many ethnic influences represented in the Calumet region. Second, our conference featured a guided tour of downtown Orland Park allowing participants to experience first-hand the latest developments transforming Orland Park's recently adopted Comprehensive Plan into a built reality. And lastly, in conjunction with our affiliated student organization, the Illinois Chapter of the Students for the New Urbanism, CNU Illinois hosted the second annual "Pop-up Urban Design Studio" charrette enabling design and planning students from three local universities to work together in intercollegiate teams to create solutions for one of the region's iconic brownfield sites. CNU Illinois is pleased to share the results of our organization's most recent efforts with you on the following pages. We invite you to join with us as we continue the this work into the future.