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.
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-...
It’s rare and perhaps significant that an architecture critic reviews something as utilitarian as a new supermarket, as Blair Kamin did recently in the Chicago Tribune. The reason: in place of another conventional big box, the new two-story Jewel-...
The City of Pittsburgh has unveiled a smaller plan to revitalize the downtown shopping district, known as Fifth and Forbes. The current $363 million plan includes a hotel, offices, retail stores, and 580 apartments. The plan maintains an urban...
Bill Lennertz and Steve Coyle, of Lennertz Coyle & Associates in Portland, Oregon, founded the nonprofit NCI to research “the art and science” of design charrettes and educate professionals on the subject. Board members are Elizabeth Plater-...
Whitman’s speech caps a well-attended event in San Diego.
Speaking to a sold-out crowd at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in San Diego, California, in late January, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Christine...
The Greater Minnesota Housing Fund has published “Building Better Neighborhoods,” a 92-page book which describes and illustrates urban design principles for towns and cities. Contact: (615) 221-1997.
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...