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.
In his “State of CNU” address on the opening night of CNU, CNU board chair Hank Dittmar recognized the “immense contributions” of CNU cofounders Stefanos Polyzoides, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Robert Davis, who have elected to become emeritus...
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...
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 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
A proposal to transform Tysons Corner into “Northern Virginia’s downtown” is getting a skeptical response in some quarters. The owners of 2.5 million sq. ft. Tysons Corner Center, the largest shopping mall in metropolitan Washington, have asked RTKL...
Development of Cornerstone, a new town center in Parma Heights, Ohio (see April 2004 New Urban News), came to a halt after a principal developer, Joanne Schneider, was forced out of the $85 million project because of allegations of state securities...
Developer Scott Wolstein is proposing a $225 million mixed-use neighborhood on the east banks of “the Flats,” an entertainment-oriented area along the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland. In an area that has deteriorated during the past several...
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...
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...
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...
Online requests for the SmartCode rose significantly after DPZ announced that it was dropping the licensing fee (April/May 2005 New Urban News). One of two websites that are allowing the code to be downloaded, www.tnd
townpaper.com, said that 18,...