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.
See the Charter Awards presented in a lunchtime ceremony at CNU XIII in Pasadena on Friday, June 10, 2005. The awards ceremony is one of the high points of the year in New Urbanism – with jurors and winning project teams sharing the stage to...
Andrew Nash has developed a website called the International City Planners Network, to facilitate exchanges of urban planning ideas among multidisciplinary design and planning professionals. Nash says the Network, a nonprofit organization based in...
Also in Atlanta, a 28-acre infill new urban project called Glenwood Park announced that its first retail tenants — a coffeehouse and a Latin restaurant — are scheduled to open June 1. When completed, Glenwood Park will comprise 325-360 residences,...
By James Howard Kunstler Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005, 307 pp., hardcover $23. Humpty Dumpty sits on a wall, parties, and has a great time. He’s completely oblivious to warnings of danger, and leaning too far back. We all know what happens next...
After lagging behind much of the nation for a dozen years, New England is finally starting to show strong interest in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs), town centers, new urban brownfield developments, and transit-oriented communities....
Urbanists are directing the planning process for a 12,000-acre addition to the Portland urban growth boundary (UGB). Otak, a Portland-based planning and urban design firm, is leading the project, and the design team included new urbanists Laurence...
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) was tapped to create a plan for a 148-acre former State Hospital campus, a major undeveloped site in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. The Central Carolina Community Foundation was selected by Gov. Mark Sanford...
The City of Macon, Georgia, has received federal transportation funds to redevelop the historic Macon Terminal Station as an intermodal facility combining commuter rail, shuttle, and local and regional bus service. The 1916 station, designed by New...
Will Selman has formed a consulting firm, Town Planning and Design Associates, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to serve clients who need assistance with new urban development and code projects. He resigned as staff planner for the Lancaster County...
A new booklet, “Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact,” tries to dispel negative perceptions about higher-density development. The glossy 32-page booklet published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) profiles 16 projects across the US — many of...
Atlantic Station, the 138-acre new urban redevelopment of a steel mill near downtown Atlanta, is moving forward very quickly. More than a thousand residents already live in condos and apartments in the development, according to a report in the...
By Joel S. Hirschhorn, Ph.D. Sterling & Ross Publishers, 2005, 400 pp., hardcover $25.95 When a big idea bursts upon the American scene, it often takes two different forms: first a carefully argued book for serious readers, and second, a...