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.
High-tech wizards, nose rings, and the proliferation of “bourgeois bohemians” may all be harbingers of a renaissance in American urbanism, according to some experts. A recent conference in Atlanta, “The New Urbanism for the New Economy,” explored...
The developers of Mashpee Commons transform a lackluster street and balance the mix of local and national retailers.
Over the past 10 years, Mashpee Commons’ pedestrian-oriented shopping district has grown incrementally around an outdated strip...
Several emerging university centers take on new urbanist and smart growth research and education.
Universities in Maryland, Georgia, Florida, and Indiana have opened — or will soon open — centers that focus on smart growth and community building...
An audit of Illinois municipalities shows that while smart growth is a hot topic among planners, few or no towns have regulations allowing compact, mixed-use developments.
Developers and designers of new urbanist neighborhoods have long known how...
“The New Urbanism has sparked renewed interest in the work of urban designers from the late 19th and early 20th Century. In an effort to bring the insights of these generalists to today’s specialized civil engineers, town planner and engineer Peter...
Italian scholar Gabriele Tag-liaventi is producing a major publication of American new urbanist work. Those interested should send material directly to Tagliaventi, at Universita di Bologna, Facolta di Ingegneria, Istituto di Architettura e...
It’s not every day that new construction gets an award for historic preservation. But in North Carolina, the Historic Preservation Society of Durham gave its George and Mary Pyne Historic Preservation Award to the new urbanist infill development in...
The Bloomfield, Michigan, Township Board of Trustees unanimously rejected plans for Bloomfield Park proposed by developer Craig Schubiner of Harbor Companies. The master plan by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company called for 1,000 apartments mixed...
The latest project to be developed under the Austin, Texas, Traditional Neighborhood District (TND) ordinance is Brandts Crossing, a 129-acre greenfield neighborhood. The Austin Planning Commission unanimously approved the plan last November, and...
CityPlace, a 72-acre, $550 million development in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida, opened October 26th and is already bustling with activity. The project includes 600,000 square feet of retail space, with a mixture of national, regional, and local...
New Urbanism did have one success at the ballots. Voters in Westlake, Ohio, approved Crocker Park, a 75-acre mixed-use development proposed by Stark Enterprises and designed by Streetworks of Alexandria, Virginia (see October/November 2000).
Metropolitan areas in Australia and New Zealand facethe same challenges as their counterparts in North America: growing dependence on automobiles, sprawling and anonymous suburbs, and environmental degradation. But, as in the US, the New Urbanism is...