Archives
Welcome to the archives of Better Cities & Towns, a publication founded by Robert Steuteville as New Urban News in 1996. This archive holds two decades of the best news and analysis on compact, mixed-use growth and development, from 1996 to 2015.
Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia has written a paper that calls for changes in the LEED rating system. LEED programs typically “reduce building energy consumption 20 to 60 percent,” says Litman, but they...
Widewaters Group, based in DeWitt, New York, and Robert M. Leidig & Associates, in Monterey County, California, have been authorized by the City of Salinas, California, to negotiate the master planning and redevelopment of an eight-block area in...
im Van der Ryn, Paul Hawken, Jerry Brown, Peter Calthorpe, and Stewart Brand to appear at September event
New urbanist thinking holds that tight-knit development can promote neighborliness and can generate densities that make amenities, such as nearby shops and transit service, economically feasible. But at what point does a lot become too small for...
Construction began this spring on phase 1 of Westgate Pasadena, a 2005 Charter Award winner designed by Thomas P. Cox Architects. The 820-unit infill development includes 110 affordable units and 22,000 square feet of retail on 12 acres in the ...
The July/August issue of Cottage Living features what are described as the nation’s “Top 10 Neighborhoods.” Nine of the ten incorporate new urbanist ideas. Pictured on the magazine’s cover is Serenbe, a 1,000-acre development in Palmetto, Georgia,...
When Sonoma Mountain Village, a northern California new urban community for 5,000 residents, begins construction in 2009, its developers intend to outfit it with an unusual array of energy- and water-saving techniques.
Seven hundred housing units, plus other buildings, will be constructed in a tight configuration around the Forest Hills rail and bus station in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston if the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has its way. The...
To expedite development along avenues in Toronto, Ontario, and to encourage more and better-designed mid-rise buildings, the city government is seeking proposals from a multi-disciplinary consultant team, including experts in urban design, mid-rise...
The first phase of Liberty Harbor, a 28-block project near the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey, is nearly complete, with a dense collection of multi-story structures ranging from glass-box Modernist townhouses to traditional buildings with...
Whittaker Homes, the successful developer of New Town at St. Charles, Missouri, is stalled in efforts to build a similar, even larger development in the city of Liberty, near Kansas City, according to a report in The Kansas City Star. The holdup for...
Jonathan Rose Companies of Katonah, New York, broke ground June 3 on Metro Green Apartments, 50 units of affordable housing in Stamford, Connecticut. Metro Green Apartments is the first phase of a project that includes 238 mixed-income rental and...