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.
Gentlemen, start your jackhammers — the time for demolishing urban freeways is arriving.
On the last week in June, crews began breaking up pavement on the Park East Freeway just north of downtown Milwaukee — one of a number of North American urban...
The first 20 homes are under construction in The Preserve, a TND in Birmingham, Alabama. Located in a heavily developed suburban area within walking distance of two public schools, the 300-acre project is being developed by US Steel, one of the...
Future development patterns and standards in downtown Coral Gables, Florida, were the subject of a recent week-long charrette led by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and students of the University of Miami School of Architecture.
Following a $5.9-million renovation of a 1914 high school, residents are moving into The Lofts at Albuquerque High in New Mexico’s largest city. (see July/August 2001). Developed by Rob Dickson’s Paradigm & Company, The Lofts include 70 rental...
Bethesda Row, Federal Realty Investment Trust’s pedestrian-friendly redevelopment of part of downtown Bethesda, Maryland, continues to get rave reviews. “Delightful” was design critic Roger K. Lewis’s word for it recently in the Washington Post. The...
II. The forecourt Category: Semi-Public Space Subcategory: Courts The varieties of semi-public spaces must be differentiated from the family of wholly public spaces that includes the square (in its various sub-species), the plaza, and the...
Much of the current TOD is poorly designed; a report recommends a series of steps to meet smart growth goals.
The good news is that we’re mov-ing beyond the auto-oriented paradigm of the last half of the 20th Century, when commuter rail stations...
Soon US pedestrians will have to share their limited sidewalk space with the Segway scooter. The Washington Post reports that four months after the much ballyhooed scooter was unveiled, 20 states have passed laws allowing its use on sidewalks....
A vote in the US House of Representatives offers a glimmer of hope for future high-speed rail travel in the US. On May 8, the House Subcommittee on Railroads approved legislation that would provide $59 billion for rail infrastructure projects. The...
Phil Langdon, one of the first writers to cover New Urbanism for a national
publication, has joined the team of New Urban News as associate editor. Langdon wrote a cover article for the Atlantic Monthly in 1988 which brought widespread attention...
A vote in the Dallas City Council has paved the way for the start of Victory, a $600-million, 20-acre, mixed-use development adjacent to the city’s central business district. The council agreed to reimburse the developers $43 million for the...
Poundbury, Prince Charles’ neotraditional village in Dorchester, England, appears to be having an impact on the housing industry there, according to Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell, who visited the project. “Housing developers are...