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.
MLP Investments and Christner Inc. architects won an AIA Merit Award in urban design for their Hanley Station project in St. Louis, Missouri. The 8-acre, transit-oriented development with 150 apartments and 55,000 square feet of retail will begin...
Cleveland and its suburbs are getting a slew of projects that range from retail “lifestyle centers” — generally set apart from their surroundings and lacking housing — to mixed-use new urban developments. The latest project, unveiled in December,...
Avisitor to Gateway Crossing in the West End of Hagerstown, Maryland, might not sense that he has encountered a “project” or “development.” Gateway Crossing appears more like, well, Hagerstown — a small city with streets lined by two-story, single...
“In 2003, 4,827 Americans (11.3 percent of all traffic fatalities) died while crossing the street, walking to school or work, going to a bus stop, or strolling to the grocery, among other daily activities,” the Surface Transportation Policy Project...
Publisher Diane Dorney has changed the name of The Town Paper to New Towns and has added critiques of new urban neighborhoods, written by Laurence Aurbach. Aurbach devised a rating system based on 11 factors: housing diversity, mixed uses,...
Developers of Blue Back Square, a large, planned new urban expansion of the West Hartford Center in Connecticut, are fighting a lawsuit from a national shopping mall operator, Taubman Centers of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (see Dec. 2004 New Urban...
Developers are showing substantial interest in the new urban downtown proposed by Temple Terrace, Florida. The suburban city with 22,000 residents hired Torti Gallas & Partners to design the town center on 38 acres in 2004, and to create a plan...
By Michael Lassell Disney Editions, 2004, 160 pp., hardcover $50. Those looking for a putdown of Celebration won’t find it in Celebration: The Story of a Town, which is a generally glowing account and assessment of Disney’s famous Florida new...
Crosland Inc. signed an agreement to develop two neighborhoods totaling 600 houses in Longleaf, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) north of Tampa, Florida. The move should speed the pace of development in Longleaf, which has relied on...
The third Australia and New Zealand conference on New Urbanism is being held March 11-13 in Sydney. The event, Australian Council for New Urbanism (ACNU), marks the first meeting of a group by the same name. The ACNU board of directors includes new...
Shaker Square, the octagonal shopping center where residents of Shaker Heights catch commuter trains to downtown Cleveland, celebrated its 75th anniversary in November with a new owner committed to overcoming the mistakes that left half of its 150,...
Port Royal is just a small town in South Carolina, but from a new urban perspective, it’s a town with a golden opportunity and with the right attitude and tools. The opportunity is a state-owned strip of land of 40-plus acres with over a mile of...