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.
III. The Deflected Vista
The deflected vista is a promise. Its job is to provide visual interest at key points along a line of movement, but in a way that clearly defers to a prospective goal. To succeed in this ambivalent task, a deflected vista...
A 1,200-unit new urban development in the small coastal town of Brookings, Oregon, will carry on the building traditions of the early 20th-century San Francisco Bay Area architect Bernard Maybeck.
From 1913 to 1915, Maybeck worked on a company...
Experts debate alternatives to conventional thoroughfare design and street networks.
December 10 and 11, 50 CNU members met in Oakland, California for a groundbreaking meeting about planning and designing streets. The gathering included...
Federal Reserve governor Edward Gramlich says the US could save $250 billion over the next 25 years by adopting smart growth strategies in preference to continued sprawl development.
In Gwinnett County, Georgia (suburban Atlanta), a new smart growth overlay ordinance targets a landscape of aging malls and big-box stores for redevelopment as mixed-use neighborhoods. Eligible developments—at least 10 acres and built on already-...
Dowell Myers and Elizabeth Gearin of the University of Southern California list six factors that — along with the aging of the population — could lead more and more people to prefer denser, walkable neighborhoods. The six factors exist to varying...
A clue to the unfolding transformation of Beekman Street in Saratoga Springs is a tiny barber shop with a sign in its window announcing that the 15-by-20-foot building is soon to become a coffee bar.
Beekman Street, which decades ago boasted a mix...
Ken Snyder, a former official with the Department of Energy, has formed PlaceMatters.com. The nonprofit organization is set up to help communities create more livable neighborhoods through what Snyder calls “vision-centered, place-based planning.”
For years, CNU members have sought ways to customize the organization so that it can serve specific geographical areas. Up to now, CNU has not had a method for supporting chapters. Consequently, members’ mutual education and networking remained...
A Village Square composed of eight buildings is the centerpiece of Devaun Park, a 483-unit TND being constructed on 149 acres on the outskirts of Calabash, North Carolina. The Square, situated within a five-minute walk of most residents’ homes, will...
The National Town Builders Association (NTBA) has formed a new executive board consisting of Theresa Burt of the Midland Companies, Jeffrey Cagan of the Cagan Management Group, Steve Maun of Leyland Development, Robert Turner of the Habersham Land...
Architect and planner Jonathan Barnett joined Wallace, Roberts & Todd. Barnett is the second board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism to join the firm this year.