Broad-based participation and collaboration are two keys to urban excellence, according to Sustaining Urban Excellence: Learning from the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence 1987-1993. The new book highlights conclusions drawn from revisits to 21 urban places -- areas where people live and work -- that were finalists and winners of the Rudy Bruner Award (RBA) a few years earlier.
"Since 1987, the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence has sought to identify and recognize urban places, which, often against insurmountable odds, have made major contributions to the quality of life in American cities," says Simeon Bruner of the Bruner Foundation, Inc.
Supported by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research and the Bruner Foundation, site visitors examined how these urban places withstood the test of time, how they evolved in the face of changing circumstances, and what can be learned from them. The book examines factors such as leadership succession, participatory democracy, the role of the public and private sectors, and design qualities.
