Las Catalinas Beach Town Receives Prestigious CNU Charter Award

Las Catalinas Beach Town Receives Prestigious CNU Charter Award

The Beach Town neighborhood of Las Catalinas in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, has been awarded the prestigious Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) at the organization’s 30th annual gathering, held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 23-26, 2022. This award recognizes outstanding achievements in architectural, landscape, urban design, and planning worldwide. Regarded as the preeminent award for excellence in urban design, the CNU Charter Award-winning projects represent major contributions to building more equitable, sustainable, connected, healthy, and prosperous communities.

The award was received by the Beach Town design team, which included developer Charles Brewer, architect Bill Tunnell, architect Douglas Duany, Senior Town Architect Sarah Bega, and the project’s in-house design staff. The first completed neighborhood at Las Catalinas is Beach Town, a picturesque collection of homes, plazas, a small hotel, restaurants, and shops. When completed, Las Catalinas will comprise a tight-knit, architecturally rich series of beach and hill neighborhoods that hug the contours of the land and preserve the area’s spectacular ocean and mountain views.

Residents and visitors will enjoy both large and small private homes, hiking and bicycle trails, shops, restaurants, beach clubs, small hotels and inns, splashing fountains, parks, and recreational facilities, all interwoven with nature. The development is environmentally friendly in terms of energy and resource efficiency, water usage, water treatment, storm water control, and enhancement of wildlife habitats. Over 80% of the total acreage will remain in a natural state, further strengthening the ecological principles on which Las Catalinas was designed.

Beach Town’s design team, led by Charles Brewer, the founder of MindSpring and developer of Atlanta’s mixed-use neighborhood, Glenwood Park, and TSW, master planned the resort town focusing on the area’s natural beauty, and also designed the town’s hardscapes and public spaces, as well as some of the homes. The bold decision to eliminate cars from most of Las Catalinas transformed the town, and immediately created an easy sociability within the town as people stroll through the community and children safely play outside. The absence of vehicle noise allows the sound of the surf, birds, animals and conversations to be heard and enjoyed.

For more information about Las Catalinas click here.