Archinect - News

Nonprofit group releases National Zoning Atlas resource for 2025

2025-01-03T15:38:00-05:00

Here’s a useful tool for architects and planners as we enter the new year. The newly released National Zoning Atlas resource covers 30,000 U.S. municipal zoning codes and consolidates several different disciplines, representing the "most complex geocoded legal research project in the United States." The methodology for the atlas was first developed in 2020 by Cornell AAP professor Sara Bronin, who just announced her departure from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP).

Authors from the nonprofit Land Use Atlas, Inc. state: "The National Zoning Atlas helps people better understand zoning, which in turn broadens participation in land use decisions, facilitates zoning reform, and narrows a wide information gap that currently favors land speculators, institutional investors, and homeowners over socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. It also enables comparisons across jurisdictions, illuminates regional and statewide trends, and strengthens planning for housing productio...

Former ACHP Chair Sara Bronin shares statement with Archinect after departure

2025-01-03T11:14:00-05:00

Sara Bronin, the Biden Administration's appointee as Chair of the U.S. Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), recently announced her departure from the agency effective this month. Bronin, who is one of only a few licensed architects to hold the position, mentioned her optimism about forward movement in the preservation field in a LinkedIn post, along with a note about strides made in terms of outreach to Indigenous communities, housing, accessibility, and energy independence.

The most recent AIA Firm Survey Report noted that 45% of all U.S. billings were from renovations, rehabilitations, and retrofits; additions to existing structures; and/or historic preservation activities in 2023.

“I think architects are among those best positioned to help lead this dialogue, working with clients and communities to build a knowledge base and collective will to ch...

White House ACHP debuts draft alternatives for National Historic Preservation Act compliance

2024-08-27T18:52:00-04:00

The White House’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has proposed its first Draft Program Comment aimed at providing federal agencies with alternatives to complying with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

If fully approved and adopted, the recommendations will take precedence over a number of key areas that impact the architecture industry, namely housing, transportation, and the acceleration of decarbonization efforts in the building sector.

Architect and ACHP Chair Sara C. Bronin, who spoke to Archinect on the topic of housing desegregation in 2021, said: "Today’s action aims to position our historic places at the center of affordable, accessible, climate-resilient, equitable, and interconnected communities and to ensure new investment reaches people who live in, use, and enjoy our historic places. I am looking forward to engaging Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and the public on the best ways to ensure historic preservation strateg...

Architect and academic Sara Bronin announced as Biden's nominee for Advisory Council on Historic Preservation chair

2021-06-29T13:40:00-04:00

A new nominee for chairman of the White House’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has been named this week, placing a community activist and architect into a position of influence that had been only a part-time role until 2016.

The Hartford Courant is reporting that Sara Bronin has been nominated by President Biden as the next chair of the 55-year-old council. Bronin is already an advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and has been featured recently in Archinect for her ongoing efforts surrounding housing segregation in Connecticut. If confirmed, she will join Wayne Donaldson and Trump appointee Aimee Jorjani on a list of others to helm the council in the past decade.

A White House press release cited Bronin’s academic background and public service record as the reasons behind her nomination, stating that her work “focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places.”

Related on Archinect: Biden admini...