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 new owners of Coffee Creek Center in Chesterton, Indiana, have abandoned the development’s nine-year-old new urbanist plan, saying it failed to appeal to homebuyers. “You’re not in an area where urbanism exists,” James Gierczyk, one of the new...
At the Providence Congress, a talent-packed panel of former jury chairs or multiyear jurors of CNU’s Charter Awards gave audience members a behind-the-scenes look at the selection process for New Urbanism’s most coveted awards. Stephanie Bothwell,...
Slowly but surely, local governments in the Syracuse, New York, area are implementing ideas that Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) introduced during an October 1999 charrette. The DPZ-prepared Settlement Plan for Onondaga County has still not...
The Congress for the New Urbanism is creating an affordability task force to be co-chaired by Emily Talen, associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois, and Neal Payton, principal at Torti Gallas & Partners in...
magine driving into Memphis and finding a medical district whose skyline consists of one romantic tower after another — Tennessee’s response to the medieval Italian town. Imagine walking the streets of the medical district and finding them not bleak...
An elegant $75 million mixed-use development designed principally by New Haven architect Robert Orr has been tucked into a difficult 4.74-acre site in the Southport section of Fairfield, Connecticut. Houses in Federal, Italianate, and Greek Revival...
An article in the September issue about the Tornagrain project in Scotland, being designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ), contained two errors. According to DPZ, the project encompasses 550 acres, not 350 acres, and the managing director of...
Wal-Mart appears likely to use some new urbanist ideas when the company replaces its hurricane-destroyed store in Pass Christian, Mississippi, says Mayor Chip McDermott. Mayor McDermott told The Sun Herald in late September that Wal-Mart is taking...
Gulfport, Mississippi, expects to spend more than $3 million to begin a harbor project that would include a marina, a promenade, and an area for restaurant and retail businesses, in keeping with a plan devised by Wallace, Roberts & Todd (WRT)....
Sunland Park, New Mexico, is hoping to use new urbanist principles to plan a new downtown district at the border crossing to Juarez, Mexico. Veronica Rosales, director of community development for the 14,250-person municipality, says that “despite...
CNU’s newly formed Visitability & Accessibility Task Force will focus on raising awareness among new urbanists about the importance of visitability and accessibility and raising awareness among accessibility advocates of the benefits of...
Mark A. Benedict and Edward T. McMahon are authors of a new book, Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities, that discusses how to plan, protect, and manage natural and restored lands, including those along greenways. The 300-page, $...