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.
One of the largest Hope VI redevelopments, City West, is gearing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, near the downtown and neighborhoods affected by last year’s riots. The redevelopment of adjacent public housing projects, Lincoln Court and Laurel Homes, will...
Developer Earl Robertson has completed the first apartment building in the Lowell Neighborhood, an infill project in downtown Colorado Springs. The four-story building includes 14 units and is built next to a recently renovated, 108-year-old school...
The Revitalization Corp., chartered by the District of Columbia, has unveiled plans for a redevelopment of the southwest Potomac River waterfront into a mixed-use, pedestrian friendly neighborhood center. Plans call for apartments, shops and cafes,...
In San Diego, Mayor Dick Murphy’s City of Villages strategy is moving closer to becoming the framework for future growth in the city. The strategy’s goal is to channel growth into compact, walkable town centers and neighborhoods, and the mayor is...
The Project for Public Spaces has reprinted the classic 1980 study of New York City’s plazas, “The Social Life of Small Urban Places” by William H. Whyte. The book and companion video are available for $35 and $25 respectively. Contact: (212) 620-...
The Envision Utah Partnership is the winner of the American Planning Association’s Daniel Burnham Award for 2002. The jury cited the partnership’s “masterful job of bringing public and private interests together.”
The Miami Congress will turn the spotlight on the role the New Urbanism can play in the transformation of suburbs into towns. Over the past five years, an increasing number of postwar suburbs and small cities have taken on the challenge of turning...
The new urban master plan and overlay zoning for the area surrounding Dadeland Mall in Kendall, Florida, is beginning to bear fruit. The Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners passed the zoning in 1999 (see January/February 2000 New Urban...
The City of Greenville, South Carolina has a new master plan for the Haynie-Sirrine neighborhood, a predominantly African American community degraded by the conversion of the main thoroughfare into a six-lane highway in the 1950s. The master plan by...
A master plan for the Ocean View section of Norfolk, Virginia, was unveiled by architect Ray Gindroz of Urban Design Associates (UDA). The plan recommends the creation of a “village center” adjacent to the site of a new urban neighborhood soon to be...
Programs focusing on smart growth and the New Urbanism were launched at four universities in the past year. Most have stressed education; research and hands-on design are also on the agendas.
In Miami, a group of professionals from different...
The Baldwin Park project is the largest new urban infill development in Florida.
Since the Pentagon designated the Naval Training Center for closure in 1993, this 1,100-acre site has been the subject of one the nation’s most extensive public...