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.
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...
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 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...
Editor’s note. This is the first in a series of articles that will explore the economic realities behind new urbanist development projects.
West Bend Village in Bend,Oregon, was the first attempt at New Urbanism for developer Mike Tennant. The 22...
Alexander Cooper of Cooper Robertson & Partners, a New York firm that has designed many new urbanist (NU) communities, was hired by the World Trade Center leaseholder to plan reconstruction of the site.
Cooper was hired along with David Childs...
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 Dallas branch of RTKL Associates has designed a mixed-use town center for The Woodlands, a 27,000-acre planned conventional community outside Houston. Since its establishment in the early 1970s, the Woodlands has grown to approximately 40,000...
A mixed-use, infill development is now under construction in the historic Viewmont neighborhood in Hickory, North Carolina. Viewmont Square will feature 36 Charleston-style townhouses and a retail building topped by two floors of condominiums. Other...