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.
America’s newly minted Smart Growth Leadership Institute says that to make smart growth the status quo, “You have to set a framework in which it is financially better to invest in existing communities than it is ‘out there,’ adding to the sprawl...
New Urbanism’s first champion at HUD discusses his philosophy and strategy as a private-sector developer of housing in cities.
With the Bush Administration proposing to end new funding of the HOPE VI redevelopment program after the current fiscal...
After many years of development, the SmartCode finally has arrived (see December 2002 New Urban News). The SmartCode is the culmination of years of work by leading new urbanists Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ), and its release has been...
Kalamazoo, MI, is the latest city looking to employ New Urbanism to reinvigorate its riverfront.
The city received a $2.8 million Clean Michigan Initiative Riverfront Redevelopment Grant from the state to renew the area.
A preliminary plan,...
Once a small city unto itself — with its own phone system, water works, general store and infirmary — the 41.5-acre site in Columbus, Ohio, upon which the Jeffrey Mining Company once stood is now being transformed into Jeffrey Place. Wedged between...
As the Southern Village TND in Chapel Hill, NC, approaches buildout, developer Bryan Properties is gearing up for a new pedestrian-oriented project outside neighboring Durham. Property manager Jim Earnhardt says Bryan has contracted to purchase...
CNU member Linda Matthew is leading an effort to assemble very detailed information about new urbanist projects under construction. This database will supplement New Urban News’ annual overview of projects. Details will be available at CNU.org. If...
NewUrbanism.org has just opened its MarketPlace to serve the growing market demand for new urban practitioners. The MarketPlace will include listings of design firms, town planners, architects, developers, transportation planning firms, marketing...
Grandview, a six square-mile unincorporated area just east of Durango, CO, will become a new urban community if it is not stopped by citizen opposition to development. Jeff Speck of Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co. was hired by the Tierra Group, LLC, the...
A total of $494 million was awarded in what may be the second-to-last round of HOPE VI funding. New urbanists participated in the design of more than half of the 28 projects announced in March, 2003, allocated in the 2002 budget.
The program is...
Building envelope standards, general guiding principles:
1. Buildings are aligned and close to the street.
2. The street is a coherent space, with consistent building forms on both sides of the street.
3. Buildings oversee the street (and square...
Miami-Dade County, Florida, has created an Urban Design Center headed by new urbanists. Director Shailendra Singh worked for Correa Valle Valle architects, and principal planner Natasha Alfonso worked at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., both new urban...