From Farm Town to National Acclaim: Carmel, IN as a Showcase of New Urbanist Design and the “Holistic” Growth Machine

Carmel, Indiana has been an anomaly in terms of entire transformation of a city's design and identity over the span of the last thirty years. This research aims to situate Carmel's development process into the urban planning theories of New Urbanism and the "growth machine" thesis, as well as telling Carmel's development story as a narrative of key events. Research focuses on the dynamic between the key aspects of New Urbanism - sustainability, livability, and human-scale growth - and the "growth machine" thesis which frames urban growth as a detrimental process focused on generating wealth solely for the decision makers, or "growth coalitions." Carmel's development story uniquely fits into both of these antonymic perspectives on growth, and this thesis defines it as a "holistic" growth machine that has grown to benefit the city, the people, and the built environment.