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.
Photo 1 caption (on page 1): This streetscape is part of a revitalized downtown for Woodstock, Georgia — one of 15 winners of Charter Awards for 2008. See story on page 6.
Phil Angelides, chairman of the new Canyon-Johnson Urban Communities Fund, says there has been “very substantial progress in changing the thinking about how you design communities” since 1990, when he started developing Laguna West on the southern...
Patrick Square, a traditional neighborhood development, is breaking ground in Clemson, South Carolina, in March. Florida-based developer JMC Communities is seeking EarthCraft Community certification, a standard for sustainable residential...
The redevelopment of an Old Sawmill District into a neighborhood has received approval from the City of Missoula, Montana. The 46-acre site will provide housing, common areas, commercial uses, and access to the existing riverfront trail and park...
A New York Times article of February 27 comments on the revival of Downcity Providence, Rhode Island, in the last decade. The article gives substantial credit to new urbanist Buff Chace, a developer who has restored eight buildings at a cost of $80...
Tax subsidies that would help General Growth Properties redevelop the obsolete Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah, into a 57-acre town center won endorsements recently from the local and county governments and school district. The Salt Lake Tribune...
The current woes of the housing market and subprime mortgages are only the beginning of troubles for suburbia, according to an article in The Atlantic by Christopher Leinberger, a developer, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, and...
Back-to-back cottages — a model that could be used on small lots in many towns and cities — are under construction in the Bywater section of New Orleans. Corner Markers/Bywater LLC, a partnership of architect Andres Duany, New Towns publisher...
Redevelopment of 711-acre Mueller Airport combines New Urbanism, green features, and affordable housing.By early March, the first 50 families will have moved onto the site of the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, about three miles northeast...
Edited by Paul Stanton KibelThe MIT Press, 2007, 216 pp., $22 paperbackOf the six riverfronts carefully examined in this book, the one with the most exciting prospects is the Anacostia — sometimes referred to as Washington, DC’s “other river.” Much...
A sense of urgency ran through the Green Architecture and Urbanism Council held in Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, DC, just after Thanksgiving. Like other councils, this one was an independently organized meeting of peers (many of them CNU...
Mike Watkins, who has headed up the Washington, DC, office of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company for 19 years, has enrolled in the inaugeral class of a master’s program with an emphasis on classical design. The program is offered jointly by the...