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.
Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities recently received a $1.5-million federal grant. University officials hope academic neutrality will foster agreements between competing groups, while developers and environmentalists hope the...
Recent opposition to a development in Suffolk, Virginia, shows the uphill battle that many developers of new urbanist projects face — even in a municipality with progressive zoning provisions. Driver Village, a 45-home subdivision, was narrowly...
The Flag House Courts redevelopment, a Hope VI project in East Baltimore, is one of four winners of the American Institute of Architects’ Honor Award for outstanding regional and urban design. Hope VI is HUD’s program to redevelop public housing....
Oklahoma’s first new urbanist development, the Village at Central Park, is now under construction six blocks from downtown Tulsa. The infill project includes 103 units in brownstone townhomes and loft homes, as well as eight three-story retail...
Cooperation and education are the keys to building human-scale streets and ensuring public safety.
Over the last decade, many designers, engineers, developers, local officials, emergency response personnel, and neighborhood residents have found...
The DPZ-designed units in Atlanta, built by Beazer Homes, demonstrate the versatile nature of the flex house. Like nearly all flex houses, they do not have raised foundations, so the first floor is at grade. This is vital for commercial units facing...
Homebuilders are introduced to an idea which is becoming increasingly popular with new urbanists.
The separation of work and home began with the Industrial Revolution, and
reached its zenith in the automobile dominated last half of the 20th...
Glatting Jackson of Orlando has hired Ian M. Lockwood, a nationally recognized traffic calming expert, as a Senior Transportation Engineer. Lockwood, formerly a transportation engineer with West Palm Beach, Florida, won the 1997 Past Presidents’...
“The advantages of the cul-de-sac over the through street are that they are quieter and safer for children; they provide the potential for more neighborly interaction; there is a greater sense of privacy; residents have a greater ability to...
With its Smart Growth Matrix (see October/November 2000) and other incentive programs, Austin, Texas, has provided a model for encouraging new urbanist and smart growth projects. In an article in the Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal,...
Baltimore is eyeing a massive, 20-block redevelopment in one of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. The city has tapped Urban Design Associates (UDA), a Pittsburgh firm with extensive New Urbanism credentials, to lead the planning process. The...
A host of mixed-use buildings are under construction in the Los Angeles area, and this trend is expected to more than double the number of residential units located above commercial uses in that city, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal....