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 City of Moss Point, Mississippi, one of the coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, is moving forward with a plan that includes adoption of the SmartCode, according to press reports. Steve Renfroe, chairman of the Moss Point...
The International City/County Management Association and the Smart Growth Network have released “This is Smart Growth,” a publication that illustrates how communities can improve the quality of development. It features 40 places around the country,...
Habitat for Humanity is seeking to raise its design standards through a collaboration with the Institute for Classical Architecture & Classical America (ICA&CA). Three architects selected by ICA&CA are designing houses in Rochester, New...
Downtown Montgomery will soon have a new plaza much like those in Europe. The Alabama city was about to rebuild an intersection around the 1885-vintage Court Street fountain when Ken Groves, head of the city planning department, asked Rick Hall and...
Berkeley-based planner says New Urbanism should focus more on jobs and regional planning.Peter Calthorpe, whose urban and regional planning work now extends from American locales such as Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Austin to overseas cities...
New urbanists are working to establish a design and development center in Mississippi that would help the state’s Gulf Coast communities rebuild wisely.
The center’s focus would be on “helping communities work with the development industry to...
Dhiru Thadani, a Washington, DC, architect and member of the CNU board, will lead the planning for what is probably the biggest educational project on the planet — the building of a brand-new university in India for 100,000 students. Thadani, a...
Well over 200 homes are built or under construction in Norton Commons, a traditional neighborhood development outside of Louisville, Kentucky. The town center for the project is also under construction, with four live-work units, and three mixed-use...
Well-executed new urban projects often spawn other projects nearby, and a new example of this tendency is in Birmingham, Alabama. Chimney Rock, a town designed in July and on a fast track for development, is located down the road from Mt Laurel, a...
A mixed-use infill project broke ground in Providence, Rhode Island, designed by new urbanist Donald Powers. Two buildings on a vacant lot on Douglas Avenue will include a total of 13 residential units above 5,500 square feet of retail. The...
Fourteen states have enacted visitability legislation, and at least 24 cities have modified their building codes to make new houses accessible to disabled visitors, the American Planning Association newsletter Zoning Practice reported in an April...
Keith Covington has launched Third Coast Design Studio, a Nashville-based planning, urban design, and architecture practice. Covington formerly directed the Nashville Planning Department’s Design Studio.