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.
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.
1) Mix land uses.
2) Take advantage of compact building design.
3) Create housing opportunities and choices for a range of household types, family sizes and incomes.
4) Create walkable neighborhoods.
5) Foster distinctive, attractive communities...
Albuquerque overhauled its downtown development requirements about two years ago, and the simplicity of the new system has helped set off what is, by the standards of a previously somnolent downtown, a huge building boom.
Moule & Polyzoides...
A study in metropolitan Portland provides a largely but not wholly encouraging answer to the question of whether new urban design gets suburbanites out of their cars.
Sociologist Bruce Podobnik has found that residents of the new urban...
Wal-Mart, the king of discount superstores on suburban commercial strips, has apparently discovered a new market — city dwellers. Wal-Mart recently opened a store in a mixed-use, urban location in Long Beach, California, without the usual sea of...
September 28, CNU's Board of Directors decided to organize regional and student CNU chapters. The chapters will start slow, in order to work out the kinks in management, fundraising, and administration. Nascent chapters in Florida and Pennsylvania...
The Association for the New Urbanism in Pennsylvania (ANUPA), which Lancaster County planner Will Selman and Emmaus Borough Council member Joyce Marin began organizing in the summer of 2001, has established a web site: www.anupa.org. One of the site...
(Introduction to Terminated Vistas, Deflected Vistas, and Layered Vistas)
I. Urban Vistas
In the practice of urbanism, a host of techniques can help people move around easily and interestingly. One group of techniques consists of methods that...
Contrary to what preservation-minded visitors may think, the charming historic section of Charleston, South Carolina, makes up a mere six of the city’s 100 square miles. Outlying areas of Charleston have a far more suburban character, and some are...
A street grid adds a human-scale element, enhances transit access, and creates the potential for urban-style redevelopment in two recent Colorado power centers.
Two Denver area shopping centers show how large-scale retail, when subjected to...