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.
New data has come out quantifying office workers’ support for retail, according to retail consultant and town planner Robert Gibbs. “A recent survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers found that office workers make a significant amount...
After four and a half years without missing an issue, The Technical Page authors Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell have taken a summer sabbatical. They will be back with their next installment in September.
Matt Taecker has left Catalyst to form his own firm, Taecker Urban Design & Planning in Berkeley, California, which will focus on revitalization of urban neighborhoods through design and community organizing. Taecker intends to emphasize...
Lakewood, a 200-acre new urban, mixed-use community in Athens, Georgia, was scheduled to break ground in June (see images below). The project, under development by Shane and Mike Dekle, includes 334 single-family detached houses, 88 townhouses, 94...
Danish architect Jan Gehl, who shared CNU XIII closing keynote duties with author James Howard Kunstler, was a modernist and “less is more” believer when he graduated from architecture school in 1960. Then he married a psychologist and set himself...
A 30-acre downtown extension called South End is under construction in Memphis, Tennessee, and is expected to be home to 3,000 to 4,000 residents in five years, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The first residents of the mixed-use project...
Researchers presented findings at
the Congress for the New Urbanism annual conference that show substantial energy savings from higher-density urbanism — greater savings than can be achieved from the US government Energy Star program (see...
The full 12 miles of the Hiawatha Line, the first light-rail route in the Twin Cities, opened last December and is now attracting about 20,400 passenger trips each weekday. High ridership — the line is exceeding projections by 46 percent — is...
Dan Camp, developer of the Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi, was elected mayor of Starkville June 7, winning 61 percent of the vote. Camp argued during the campaign that a new police headquarters and municipal court facility should be...
For years, one of the biggest disappointments of Columbia, Maryland, has been that rather than erect a real town center, the Rouse Company built an enclosed shopping mall in the heart of its 1960s “new town.” Now, however, there’s serious talk about...
A two-story office and retail building will house a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in downtown Carmel, Indiana, according to the Indianapolis Star. The building will have a drive-through lane, but will be placed close to the street and have more...
A meeting will be held in Manhattan in September to organize the NY/NJ Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Contact Ted Andrews (edandrews@earthlink.net or 212/514-7500) for the date and meeting place. u