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.
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, $...
Proposals for planting rows of trees along the roads — a traditional technique for shaping pleasing public spaces — are often opposed by transportation engineers, who contend that a wide travel corridor, free of obstacles, is needed to protect the...
Public workshops lead toward a statewide vision of the future, while 15 teams work on planning New Orleans.
Andres Duany hopes to help revive the art of village-building in Scotland. Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. has been commissioned by Moray Estates Development Company to help plan a new Highland community containing about 5,000 houses, along with shops...
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has cleared the site in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where its store was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and has hired consultants to study a proposal for constructing a “Wal-Mart village” there, says local architect Robin Riley...
In a region with numerous examples of mixed-use town centers and TNDs completed, Ayrsley in Charlotte, North Carolina, is taking off. Planned for a total of 2,000 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of offices, 400,000 square feet of retail,...
Urban designer and architect Bill Dennis of Providence, Rhode Island, created a plan for a 160-acre traditional neighborhood development in Baton Rouge, Lousiana, in July. The plan includes a main street, library, post office, Montessori school, and...
Fairfax County, Virginia, has issued a request for proposals for redesigning one of the nation’s most famous, or notorious, edge cities — Tysons Corner. The consultant selected by the county would help a business-civic group known as the Tysons Task...