As preferences shift toward walkable communities and the last few decades of development begin to age, Ellen Dunham-Jones is cataloguing examples of how suburbs are being “reinhabited, redeveloped, and regreened.” Dunham-Jones tells stories about converting dead malls to vibrant downtowns, or old office parks to new main streets.

As the co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs (2008), Ellen Dunham-Jones is known for her work in aging suburbs. The book includes case studies of parking lots, malls, and cul-de-sacs that have been redeveloped into vital neighborhood centers.

Enjoy this lecture from the 2013 Placemaking Conference in Norman, Oklahoma, hosted by The University of Oklahoma Institute for Quality Communities on April 3, 2013.

This presentation is also available on iTunes U.