Chesterton, IN-- Coffee Creek Center is one of ten projects currently on display at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Reimaging the Suburbs: Smart Growth and Choices for Change is the second exhibition on smart growth cosponsored by the National Building Museum and the Urban Land Institute. Reimaging the Suburbs opened October 22, 1999, and runs through March 26, 2000.
This exhibition examines smart growth approaches to suburban planning and design. These development principles propose that communities should be diverse, sustainable, and consistent with the following goals: pedestrian-friendly communities with access to transportation choices, community vitality, a mix of housing types and uses, reduced demand on government resources, and protection of rural areas and the natural environment. This exhibition also examines smart growth design methods that use comprehensive plans and zoning codes by local governments to control growth and development. Lake Erie Land Company's Coffee Creek Center, a traditional neighborhood development, or TND, seeks to create neighborhoods where human interaction is encouraged, a sense of place is established, and dependence on the automobile reduced. Coffee Creek Center is a more than 640-acre project in Northwest Indiana slated for up to 2,000 residential units and over 3 million square feet of commercial, office and retail space. The project's centerpiece is a more than 180-acre public conservation district. For more information, visit www.coffeecreekcenter.com.