Forest Hills GardensA walkable, transit-oriented, architecturally rich planned community, built 100 years ago.

James Rouse attempted to meld these concepts (simulated villages, walkability, mix of housing types close together, and enormous attention to landscape planning) with those of the postwar suburb (plenty of room for cars, a giant shopping mall) in Columbia, MD. An evaluation of what has succeeded and what slipped along the way (in part due to recessions and changes in consumer preferences ) would be an interesting exercise. I hope some of the New Urbanist planners have studied this project, or will do so.

--beige
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Reminds me of Lake Forest, IL, which is also in the Bavarian style and also built around the same time, with a walkable square and a railroad station, about half an hour by train from downtown Chicago. I wonder if there is a specific connection between the two communities, or just the Zeitgeist.

--herzliebster
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What a beautiful neighborhood. My thought regarding the "affordable" homes now worth a million: It makes me wonder what we've lost over the years in terms of ingenuity. These houses are gorgeous, yet could be put up in 9 days using prefabricated materials. Yet 100 years later we can't top the design or construction at any price. Within 20 years the McMansions you speak of will already be falling apart without extensive maintenance.

--Sundown
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