The mission of Civic By Design is to elevate the quality of our built environment and to to engage the needs of communities  in the creation of a more beautiful and functional region for all.

We achieve our mission by engaging and uniting designers, developers, businesses, non-profits, academic institutions, municipal governments, and citizens through promotion of civic design.

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News:


ON THE BOARDS:


Working on a new Pocket Neighborhood in North Carolina. This is located in an historic small town a short walk from main street and a redeveloped historic mill now reprogramed with event space , offices, restaurants, and a small grocery store.  This development preserves a walnut grove as a center piece on extended property with one of the oldest homes in the state.  Beautiful and picturesque setting.


     


Newly completed rendering showing the proposed first phase of our master planned community in Tulsa Oklahoma.  See related news story below.


Birds-eye rendering detail of the proposed Learning Cottage campus school.


RECENT:


November 14, 2018:  Tom Low conducted a workshop at the national 2018 AARP Livable Communities National Conference.  The topic is Engaging communities through hands-on on design collaboration with MIXOPOLY. 




October 16, 2018: Tom Low conducted three sessions at the annual CASQA conference in Riverside California:

• RETHINKING URBAN SPRAWL & GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

  1. GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR WALKABLE  DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDIES

  2. BRING IT DOWN, SPREAD IT AROUND, PUT IT IN THE GROUND

 In 2015 Tom was the Keynote Speaker





June 17 - 24, 2018  TULSA WORLD Planned 128-acre neighborhood in northwest Tulsa will encourage healthy, social living, developers say “Tom Low, of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Civic By Design, is a master planner for the project. He has worked on more than 400 neighborhoods that follow the model of Evolving Communities. “Once you live in a place where you’re not shackled to a car for everything, you ... realize how much freedom you have and how much quality time you have,” Low said.” https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/planned--acre-neighborhood-in-northwest-tulsa-will-encourage-healthy/article_2f877d23-e225-5516-aef1-8b441bb1e487.html



Some action shots of charrette studio activity:


Some charrette action shots of feed-back loop in-up reviews directed by Tom Low:


Charrette presentation of concepts:



Charrette work continues on the Edison Community, Tulsa Oklahoma - here are some sample graphics in process:




July 30, 2018 NEXT CITY: Tom Low quoted in article Charlotte Moves Towards a Car-Free City Center “Many thought this development pattern going back into the central cities was going to be a more gradual thing, but it swung back that way in full-force and very quickly as well,” says Tom Low, an architect and urban planner based in Charlotte. “Unlike [the urban growth] in the early 1900s in the Northeast, before cars were dominant, these southern cities doing urban gentrification now have to think about making both the people happy, and their cars happy too. That’s one of the huge challenges.”

https://nextcity.org/features/view/charlotte-moves-toward-a-car-free-city-center




July 27, 2018 PUBLIC SQUARE: Build As If Daylight Were Your First Light

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2018/07/27/build-if-daylight-were-your-first-light





July 20, 2018 PUBLIC SQUARE:  Build As If There Were No Air Conditioner

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2018/07/20/build-if-there-were-no-air-conditioning






May 2018 CNU26: National Conference in Savannah, Georgia Civic By Design co-hosted tours of The Village of Habersham.  Habersham is a case study for the Light Imprint: Integrating green infrastructure and new urbanism in these focus areas:

CASE STUDY FOCUS

•  HISTORIC CONTINUITY  - The history of the region and site;

•  SPRAWL vs. TND - A comparison of the original suburban sprawl master plan with the Traditional   Neighborhood Development master plan;

•  A FULL TRANSECT EXPERIENCE - A 10-minute walk from edge to center demonstrates a full range of the   T1 - T5 transect zoning;

  1.  LYING LIGHTLY ON THE LAND - An overview of the Light Imprint tools embedded in the master plan

   design with this overall theme; and

  1.  BEAUTY & DESIGN - Using artistry to help carefully design streets around existing trees and create beautiful outdoor spaces that enhance the incredible natural beauty and elegant architecture.



CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE CASE STUDY



2018 COASTAL LIVING MAGAZINE: Congratulations to Habersham South Carolina for making the Coastal Living top 20 Best Places to Live - up there with Newport and Annapolis wow! It been a pleasure collaboration on this master plan. https://www.coastalliving.com/travel/top-10/best-places-to-live-2018#20-best-places-to-live-2018-santa-cruz





The Jacobs #PocketCourtProject is one of the Best Trad Buildings of 2017 




http://architecturehereandthere.com/2017/12/31/best-trad-buildings-of-2017/


https://www.facebook.com/david.brussat.3/posts/1022526854563425:1


“Lovely as they may be, nice houses for the wealthy are the one realm where traditional architecture needs no assistance. People, and especially rich people, are able to choose house designs as they please. Here is a group of more modest homes completed this year, the first phase of a new village near Asheville, N.C., which architect Tom Low calls his Pocket Court Project. I first got wind of it late in 2016, after writing about a village in the Dordogne region of France. “Is this possible anymore?” The answer, says Low, is yes.”





FYI - this is nice story with great photos - Tom Low has been collaborating on this for a few years - nice to see it maturing and turning out well.

http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/oklahoma/most-peaceful-town-in-ok/



Tom Low presented at the Fall Roundtable of the National Town Builders Association (NTBA) on on how visionary planner John Nolen (1869-1937) produced groundbreaking, masterful town designs.  These livable communities, know for their high quality of life, are models for today’s most innovative town planning. 






Tom Low was invited to exhibit his watercolor designs in the September 22, 2017 exhibition of North Carolina's leading architects, artists (painters), builders, craftspeople, furniture makers and interior designers continuing the practice of the classical and traditional visual and building arts sponsored by

THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE & ART





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Front Porch Image

PANTHEON PORTICO VIEW OF PIAZZA DELLA ROTUNDA, ROME

Photograph