The Quest to Make the Perfect Place

Imagine a place where you can stroll down the sidewalk, wave to yourneighbors on their porch, then pick up your dry cleaning or have lunch at the café.That’s the kind of walkable, compact, mixed-use community envisioned by thefounders of New Urbanism—including Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. But some people saythere’s a reason one of Plater-Zyberk’s developments played a starring role in amemorable Hollywood film about overly constructed reality.