Willowsford is a master-planned community in suburban Washington, D.C., with a range of luxury single-family housing and a wealth of amenities, including a working farm that grows more than 200 varieties of produce for residents.

Nashville, Tennessee’s historic Sulphur Dell neighborhood has been chosen as the site for this year’s Urban Land Institute Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition.

The built environment is having a critical impact on the physical and emotional well-being of residents and workers, said Richard Jackson, professor and chair of environmental health sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health, speaking to a group of land use, urban design, and community development experts in Washington, D.C.

On a sunny but bone-chilling windy day in late March, with the Rocky Mountain foothills flanking their views to the west, seven members of a ULI Advisory Services panel listened to the whistle of a freight train as it made its way slowly through the heart of Olde Town Arvada, Colorado, about seven miles (11.3 km) northwest of Denver. Their task: envisioning how changes to the physical environment could improve the health of Arvada residents.

A walk down Main Street in Lamar with a late winter storm blowing in tells a lot about the challenges of trying to exercise in this rural city on the southeastern Colorado plains. Conditions may include 50-mile-per-hour (80 kmph) sandstorms, 18-wheelers blasting past at similar speeds, and for pedestrians, a dangerous situation caused by the lack of sidewalks, bike lanes, and safe crossings on this five-lane roadway, which also serves as U.S. Highway 50/287.

Many U.S. cities—and suburban town centers—are looking for ways to make themselves more age-friendly. These amenities will be key to attracting residents who prefer to age in place and the growing number of empty nesters drawn to urban life.