Across the country and around the world, land has been restored and reclaimed for thriving communities. Here are just a few.

A city rising with a city, the 138-acre mixed use Atlantic Station on a once polluted steel mill site in midtown Atlanta, Georgia is exceeding many expectations, reports New York Times real estate writer Lisa Chamberlain. Georgia Institute of Technology Associate Dean of Architecture Douglas C. Allen says, "There's a serious attempt to create some form of urbanity out of a relic of another world".

Once a working 1,900-acre Air Force base in Denver, CO., Lowry transformed into a forward-thinking, mixed-use community. The idea behind Lowry was to take an existing urban area, give it new life and avoid adding to the problem of urban sprawl. That dream is now reality. In fact, Lowry has been so successful that it received the Governor's Award for Smart Growth and has become a model community for urban-infill projects across the country.

Washington's Landing a 42-acre site on the Allegheny River, across from Pittsburgh, PA, was once home to meat packing and rendering facilities that covered the Island.

Stapleton, a master planned community, was formerly the Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado. The airport closed its doors in 1995. Managed by the Stapleton Development Corporation, the 4,700-acre planned community began in 1995 with a vision of creating a network of urban villages, employment centers and greenways. The community plan calls for approximately 10,000 new homes and 17-20 million square feet of office, commercial and industrial space. The property has been cleaned to residential standards under the supervision of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Today the community contains over 10,000 residents, six schools and over 200 shops, restaurants and services.