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.
Development and design opportunities for new urbanist projects are available in California and the District of Columbia. The City of Hayward, California, is seeking a developer for a 71-acre infill industrial site, to be turned into a mixed-use...
The next phase in CNU’s ongoing study of the nation’s obsolete shopping malls will help communities determine if local malls are ripe for revitalization and will propose policies for making redevelopment easier.
Amid growing national attention to...
The New Urbanism could reach Maine in the coming years. When Richard Remsen and Richard Aroneau proposed a new urbanist project in West Rockport 10 years ago, the recession shut down their plans. They now plan to revive Ingraham Corner, a 120-acre...
Los Angeles commuters can now see the first 750 apartment rise in the controversial Playa Vista project, but recent headlines have focused on developer Rob Maguire’s announcement that he has commissioned architect Frank Gehry to design at least four...
After the city has spurned several conventional project proposals, developers are now breaking ground on the first mixed-use development in the future town center.
The seeds were sown back in 1996, when the newly incorporated City of Wildwood,...
Among the developments that broke ground in 2001 are several high-density urban projects with the potential to become regional, in some cases national, models. In Midtown Atlanta, for example, new streets and other infrastructure are going in on the...
After World War II, the US launched massive housing and public works
programs to keep the nation’s economy from slipping back into a depression. Economically, the programs were a success. Urbanistically, they were a disaster.
Thousands of acres...
Hometown Neighborhoods, led by developer Joel Embry, is coordinating efforts to bring several new urbanist neighborhoods to Tallahassee, Florida. Embry represents the owners of a 7,000-acre tract of former plantation land within the city limits. The...
Organization news
CNU members recently received a new publication in their mailboxes, the New Urban Post. This publication is being produced and paid for by The Town Paper, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Post compiles e-mail discussions on...
The first townhouses and detached homes are now nearing completion in Coffee Creek Center, a 640-acre new urbanist project in Chesterton, Indiana. Also under construction are a 192-unit apartment building, a 120-room hotel, and a 50,000 sq.ft....
The City of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Mecklenburg County are entering into negotiations with the Palladium Company with regard to the firm’s proposal for a mixed-use development in Charlotte’s First Ward district. The plan by Elkus-Manfredi...
Urban designer suggests eight principles for revitalizing an urban port.
Building on the successful reinvigoration of its downtown riverfront, the City of Providence, Rhode Island, is pursuing a redevelopment of Narragansett Landing, a 650-acre...