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.
St. Louis Park, a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis, is two-thirds of the way through constructing a town center — a pedestrian-scale gathering place that the 45,000-person community has wanted for more than a decade. Where strip commercial buildings...
Routledge, 2005, 318 pp., paperback $38. If you hang around advocates of the New Urbanism for even a short time, you are bound to come across references to Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, John Nolen, Benton MacKaye, Daniel Burnham, Werner...
Village Gardens, a TND in Lincoln, Nebraska, is in the groundbreaking stage and is slated to begin construction of residential units this fall. The Campbell family, which ran a nursery business on their 215-acre property for 90 years, decided to...
Jim Horne found a new hobby when he moved into Doe Mill (see photo), a TND in Chico, California. “After seeing Doe Mill, I wanted to see what else has been built using the same principles,” he says. Horne, who runs a family business manufacturing...
Portland, Oregon, is succeeding in its efforts to cut greenhouse gases — largely through public transportation and boosting pedestrian and bicycle activity, according to the New York Times. In 1993, Portland became the first local government to...
A new guide from Smart Growth America helps citizens understand elements of community design, the planning and site approval process for development projects, and how to make sure a plan or project offers benefits such as walkability, durable design...
Torti Gallas & Partners’ new Los Angeles office was scheduled to open September 1 with a staff of seven. Co-directors will be Neal Payton, AIA, in charge of conceptual design, and Charles Coleman III, RA, who will manage the office, says Laurie...
The plan covers 28 of the county’s approximately 600 square miles. A similar plan is under way that would apply the same planning principles to an additional 370 square miles of unincorporated land in the county.
• Open-space preservation...
DPZ plan provides a starting point for 126-acre community along the Fraser River.
East Fraserlands, one of the largest potential development sites left in Vancouver, British Columbia, is on its way to becoming a new urban neighborhood containing...
Danish Architectural Press, 2000, 264 pp., hardcover 375 Danish kroner (approximately $62 US). Like many new urbanists, I got my first exposure to Jan Gehl in June, when the Danish architect gave a mesmerizing closing address at the Congress for...
Howe Dairy Farm is the first project to be approved in the City of Gastonia, North Carolina, under its new TND Ordinance. The Gandy Communities project is led by Phil Gandy and Lisa Valdez with the help of Francis Reiner, senior urban designer for...
The City of Sarasota, Florida, rezoned more than 1,800 downtown parcels in August, the final step in implementing a new code based on the SmartCode. In May of 2004 the city approved the code itself. u