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 transformation and densification of suburban business districts could reduce sprawl and traffic congestion and boost quality of life, according to the DC-based developers’ group. One official calls this the “logical next step” for smart growth...
Researchers at the University of Washington have won $5.2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to create UrbanSim, a software program capable of forecasting the effects of today’s housing, land-use, and transportation decisions 25...
The Century Theater Block, the first phase of the redevelopment of downtown Albuquerque (see July/August 2001 New Urban News) is now open for business. “The movie theater and the retail establishments are all in front of projections,” says Chris...
Active Living by Design, a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore the links between health and community design, is moving its national program office to the town center in Southern Village, a new urban community in Chapel...
The Miami Congress will turn the spotlight on the role the New Urbanism can play in the transformation of suburbs into towns.
New membership rates! Renewing members, take note — CNU’s membership rates have changed. Our individual membership is...
Coffee Creek, a new urban neighborhood in Chesterton, Indiana, is beginning to gather some construction momentum, nearly four years after the project broke ground. The 640-acre development now has two apartment buildings complete and more underway....
Realen Properties has proposed a redevelopment of the Garden State Park racetrack in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, with a design by the Princeton office of Looney Ricks Kiss (LRK). The $500-million project would include 1,100 housing units, over 1...
New federal legislation to clean up industrial “brownfield” sites, mainly in cities, represents a big step forward, according to columnist Neal Peirce. “The biggest breakthrough isn’t the increased federal money (now up to $250 million a year) in...
Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, pioneers of the New Urbanism, received the third annual Vincent Scully Prize at the National Building Museum December 16. The first two awards were given to architectural historian Scully and urban critic...
South Street Cerritos, a 76,000 sq. ft., high-end town center opened in December, 2001, in Cerritos, California. Designed as a main street by Perkowitz+Ruth Architects, the project connects to a 155,000 square foot Target which opened in 2000.
One of the nation’s largest new urban brownfield projects, Mission Bay in San Francisco, is facing difficulties with the recession and collapse of the office market in the Bay area, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Catellus Corp. has stopped...
In Provo, Utah, The Village at Riverwoods was recognized with the Envision Utah Governor’s Quality Growth Award for Grand Achievement in Planning and Implementation. The 145-unit development of townhomes, flats, and live/work lofts will be completed...