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.
Leyland Alliance, a Warwick, New York-based developer, has established an affiliate organization called Live Work Learn Play LLP, which will focus on establishing shopping, dining, hospitality, and other commercial components in neighborhood and...
Controversy has been raging along the Gulf Coast over plans by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) to build a 128-foot-wide highway bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs. Hurricane Katrina knocked the decking off the Highway 90...
And don’t forget: mail or ship your Charter Awards submissions by January 31, 2006. Please make sure that entries sent from overseas locations are scheduled to arrive within one week of the shipping deadline. For full awards details, visit www.cnu....
Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection, a new book by Professor Stephen R. Kellert of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, examines people’s need for elements of nature, whether in cities or in...
Lolly Barnes, who lives in Biloxi and participated in the Mississippi Renewal Forum, will run the Gulf Coast field office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with the Mississippi Heritage Trust, working on restoration of...
Two large-scale traditional neighbor-
hood developments (TNDs) are moving forward near the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, taking advantage of a high demand for housing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The first of their kind in the region, the TNDs...
The Trust for Sustainable Development has started con-
structing an 8,000-acre resort community in Baja California that features advanced environmental techniques and New Urbanism. Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. planned the Mexican development,...
The huge Mesa del Sol development in Albuquerque may soon start its first building project, a 90,000 sq. ft. light industrial and office building for the photovoltaic cell manufacturer Advent Solar, which hopes to employ 1,000 people there by 2010....
Plans are moving forward in New York’s Borough of Brooklyn for Willoughby Square, a collection of offices, hotel space, and residential condominiums with a new 1.5-acre park at its core. Unlike the nearby MetroTech Center, which was designed some 15...
The population of American downtowns rose 10 percent during the 1990s, reversing 20 years of decline, according to a new study by Eugenie L. Birch of the University of Pennsylvania’s planning school. Birch examined downtown population, household,...
On Providence’s Eastside, homes
with holiday lights slowly pass by my train window. After passing a half-dozen downtown development projects on my walk from the train station to the office, I can’t help but think that “Developing the New...
An article by Andrew Nelson in the November-December National Geographic Traveler pays this tribute to pedestrian-friendly traits, as found in Philadelphia: “One of Philadelphia’s greatest assets is of a low-tech variety — its sidewalks. A city...