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.
Austin Triangle, a smart growth showcase project in the Texas capital (see October/November 2000 issue), suffered a setback last December when residential developer Post Properties withdrew. Commercial developer Cencor Urban Realty has had five...
CATALYST is a new partnership formed by Matt Taecker, formerly a principal at Calthorpe Associates, and Tom Richman, a landscape architect with experience in ecological site planning and community visioning. The San Francisco-based firm has a staff...
As our tenth annual gathering of proponents of the New Urbanism approaches, the time is right to look back at the movement’s accomplishments. At the same time, big new challenges lie ahead —most notably that of helping existing suburbs become...
Moule & Polyzoides of Pasadena, California, has completed a plan for Arboleda, a 210-acre community in King City, California, developed by Creekbridge Homes. The Transect-based design includes a site for a middle school to be built by the...
Grosvenor Village in North Bethesda, Maryland, is the first transit-oriented development to go into construction on land formerly owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Developer Potomac Investment Properties teamed...
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has stepped up its model smart growth grant program, called the Livable Centers Initiative, awarding more than $28 million in 2002 — compared to $1 million in 2001. The program is the largest of its kind, using...
The designers and developers of California project cross a utility and infrastructure minefield after gaining approvals and financing.
For the designers and developers of the Doe Mill Neighborhood, located in Chico, north of Sacramento, getting...
Despite selling nearly 1,600 homes in Canada’s fastest-growing new urban community, Carma Developers see a limited market for traditional neighborhoods.
Carma Developers was one of the first Canadian development companies to take a chance with...
“The bang of the screen door in front of the corner store” is a sound now heard in Lakelands, a neotradi-tional development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to Marilyn Greene, of Greene’s Market. Greene, who has an MBA in marketing, is co-owner...
Harborside, a 120-acre neighborhood designed by DPZ, is underway in Northeast Richland, near Columbia, South Carolina. Harborside forms a town center to the sprawling, 1,679-acre Lake Carolina master-planned community, which consists of gated pods...
The Colorado Sprawl Action Center has named The Wellington Neighborhood in Breckenridge (see June 2001 New Urban News) to its first annual “Smart Growth Hall of Fame.” Part of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG), the Sprawl Action...
A $250 million, five-block project in a former industrial district of Portland, Oregon, combines new urban planning, high-density, mixed-use, contextual design, and adaptive reuse. In short, the Brewery Blocks, billed as Portland’s largest private...