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.
Public Architecture, a think tank and grassroots organization in San Francisco, has launched “1% Solution,” a program aimed at getting design professionals to commit one percent of their time to pro bono work. The new organization, at www....
With its theme, “The Polycentric City, CNU XIII will explore issues that arise in Southern California and resonate in regions and localities everywhere. After all, regions all over the United States and beyond are facing the reality of connecting,...
Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, recently adopted comprehensive plan and zoning amendments that will allow a town center, a traditional neighborhood development (TND), and a hospital district influenced by smart growth principles to move forward....
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and the Knight Program in Community Building, will lead a charrette July 13-18 on ways to improve the eastern portion of downtown and the adjacent Hillside/waterfront...
Three years ago, Trammell Crow, the Dallas-based company that calls itself America’s largest commercial developer, organized a wholly owned subsidiary, High Street Residential, with the aim of pursuing mixed-use projects, transit-oriented...
From 1999 to 2004 only one private-sector traditional neighborhood development (TND) was under construction in Louisiana. That first project, River Ranch in Lafayette, achieved commercial and aesthetic success, and New Urban News reported last year...
Planners and public officials are now free to use text and images, in whole or in part, from Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company’s SmartCode without paying a licensing fee, according to Andres Duany. DPZ, the author of the code, previously charged $10...
After seven years, Elizabeth Humstone has left the Vermont Forum on Sprawl to become director of US Initiatives for the Institute for Sustainable Communities, at its home office in Montpelier, Vermont. The website is www.iscvt.org. Her first project...
The Project for Public Spaces has developed a website on “context-sensitive solutions” in road design, with support from the Federal Highway Administration. Visit www.contextsensitivesolutions.org. The site suggests readings on context-sensitive...
Regulations that restrict development in Loudoun County, Virginia, were struck down March 3 by the Virginia Supreme Court. The ruling, decided on a technicality, will allow much more development in the western portion of Loudoun, said to be the...
Independence, Ohio, a suburb south of Cleveland with 7,100 residents, intends to ask developers to submit proposals to build a town center project including stores, offices, senior housing, and tightly spaced houses. Mayor Fred Ramos said the...
By Vincent Scully, Catherine Lynn, Erik Vogt, and Paul Goldberger Yale University Press, 2004, 406 pp., paperback $45. How do you judge whether a university is treating its host city decently? Some focus on how much or how little the...