Put as many eyeballs as possible on a view into nature, whether it be water, farmland, or forest. And be sure the buildings front onto the view so people from several blocks away can walk the street and enjoy the view. 
Of all the Goals in the Middle Distance I've ever seen, the Paris Opera House is clearly top-tier. Such a goal can draw you from many blocks away. 
I normally call similar things "train-wreck public housing," but this one seems to have a bit of physical order... but you have to look for it. Anyone know how this feels on the ground? 
There's no way to know whether these Poundbury apartment blocks include social housing units, but if they do, this is affordability with dignity and with no hint of lesser-income stigma. It's good enough for the King's town; is it good enough for your town? 
Forty years ago, a few pioneers decided to start building 15-minute cities again. Actually, they built 5-minute cities because they didn't think people would walk 15. This is Seaside, Florida where it all began. Time magazine called it "the little town that changed the world." 
Ben & Erin Napier may be doing the best job of anyone I'm aware of getting to Goldilocks Messy in Laurel Mississippi. What they're doing in this little town creates enough hope that Laurel is swarmed with fans on pretty days, but they're not sanitizing anything so far. 
Three core choices of townhouse design: A single design for all townhouses in a block, a composed block with some repeated designs, and individual designs along a street. Classical too vernacular. Beautiful to charming. (This is the French Quarter vernacular & classical.) 
Shutters are things that open and shut. If they don't have hinges to allow that, and if they don't have shutter dogs to hold them open, they are not shutters, but rather "screw-on do-nothings" because they screw on the wall and do nothing. 
Few children living in town know any farmers at all, and much of our food now comes from outside our nation’s borders. Bio-intensive agriculture is “good-neighbor” agriculture, requiring far less industrial equipment but more farmers for the same acreage. 
I've omitted stuff everyone else talks about because you already know that. This list starts with #10, which is the easiest to do, and works up to #1, which is the hardest to accomplish, but the most important. It might take a few days because there's a lot of important stuff. 
The Cotton District is home to the greatest new collection of both Core and Upper Missing Middle Housing types I'm aware of anywhere in America. Many are three-story walk-ups. @KarenParolek, @DanielParolek, and @johnthebad would love to share a day here. I'd love to join them. 
“Why is it that you refuse to design anything anyone else I love would love?” “Do I?” “Of course you do!” “How do you know?” “Have you ever listened to non-architects talk about architecture?” “Our professors tell us we’re supposed to educate the client.” 2/
The Florence image is +/- 40 blocks left to right; the Atlanta image, is 4. In Florence, most streets are 10-15 feet wide, with only the largest over 30. Most are paved inexpensively. In Atlanta, most rights-of-way exceed 500 feet, at millions of dollars per mile.
I discovered the Cotton District completely by accident while on a lunchtime walk during an architecture recruiting trip at Mississippi State in the 1990s. And Dan did such an excellent job with the Cotton District that the city elected him their mayor for several terms.
The elevator is absolutely essential to reaching those many floors, but who wants to be trapped in an elevator now with a bunch of strangers, any of whom could be an asymptomatic COVID19 carrier? Or maybe the carrier just stepped out moments before but their droplets remain? 