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.
The state of Mississippi hopes to start placing “Mississippi Cottages” — a version of the new urbanist Katrina Cottages — in three counties in June. Design specifications are currently being refined for the Mississippi Cottages and for two other...
Looney Ricks Kiss Architects has opened an office in Jacksonville, Florida. See lrk.com for details.
Andrews University students recently created a new urban plan for a small community in Harrison County, Mississippi, that is experiencing significant growth in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Saucier, which has about 200 people in its village center...
Harriet Tregoning, a long-time leader in smart growth, was recently named the director of planning in Washington, DC. An ally of new urbanists, Tregoning helped to establish the Smart Growth Network at the EPA, then served as a cabinet-level...
Mark Zonarich has joined Town Planning & Urban Design Collaborative (TPUDC) as Director of Town Planning in its newly established office in Baltimore. TPUDC was founded in 2005 by Brian Wright and has offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and...
A form-based code was adopted in Ketchum, Idaho, recently. It was prepared through a collaboration between the city RBF Consulting’s urban design studio, and the Tom Company. The code was created in conjunction with a downtown master plan, Al...
Stormwater management proposals that came out of a new urbanist charrette in the Gentilly section of New Orleans began to be acted upon in December — though not in Gentilly itself. Timberland, the outdoor shoe and clothing merchandiser, offered...
A 200-acre former office campus of Agilent Technologies in Rohnert Park, California, is being redeveloped into a new urban town center by shopping center developer Codding Enterprises. Sonoma Mountain Village will include 1,900 residential units...
Architect Patrick Pinnell produced a design in Simsbury, Connecticut, that aims to fit a 128,000 sq. ft. store into a walkable, mixed-use setting — one that would feature streets with housing over retail, live-work units, and a traffic roundabout...
The St. Joe Company is having trouble getting buyers of lots in two Florida Panhandle developments, WaterSound Beach and WaterColor, to build houses within three years of their purchase, according to The New York Times. Many lots have been sold at...
More support for the idea that street trees are a civic amenity, not a safety hazard, is offered by the study “Street Trees and Intersection Safety,” by University of California, Berkeley, urban design professor Elizabeth Macdonald. The study notes...