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.
A new fellowship for journalists reveals that the press is ready to deepen its coverage of urbanism and development.
Journalists interested in creating a sophisticated urban development beat are swarming to a new program at the University of...
Architecture and town planning firm Torti Gallas/CHK and national builder Beazer Homes are collaborating to bring the economics of production building to Hope VI public housing redevelopments in Washington, DC, and Baltimore. In Washington’s...
In Mt Laurel, a TND near Birmingham, Alabama, preserving as many trees as possible is a top priority. “We are not here to rape the land, “ says developer Elton Stephens, “so unlike most developments in the area, we do no mass grading.” On each lot,...
The City Council in North Miami, Florida, has adopted a master plan for the redevelopment of the NE 6th Avenue corridor. A charrette led by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council produced proposals for, among other things, narrowing the...
See hard copy; table text exceeds limits of file space
Baltimore design firm Design Collective has won a competition to design mixed-use residential and retail buildings for a housing development in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. The firm was awarded a $100,000 prize and the right to negotiate...
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) takes a new urbanist approach with its planned Santa Monica, California, workplace.
The NRDC wants to make its 15,000 sq. ft. building a showcase — not just environmentally, but also in terms of...
The new economy may have foundered, but most new urbanists report that they are as busy as ever.
Though growth has slowed in the national economy, internet firms have crashed, industrial output has declined, and the stock market has floundered,...
The commercial portion of the mall redevelopment Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, California, is 90 percent leased and ready to open in September. Exterior construction of the residential buildings will be completed at the same time, and the first...
New urbanist developer Vince Graham, a partner in acclaimed TNDs I’On and Newpoint, has run into political interference in Norfolk, Virginia. Graham’s firm, Civitas, was chosen as the developer of East Beach, a 100-acre project designed in 1994 by...
Federal Realty Investment Trust appears to be succeeding with its new urbanist projects in the Washington, DC, area. Bethesda Row, which includes 340,000 square feet of shops, offices, and restaurants in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, is 99.6 percent...
With appeals, litigation could continue for several years over Miles Point, an 89-acre TND denied by the town of St. Michaels, Maryland. At issue, according to developer George Valanos of the Midland Companies, is an inherent conflict between the...