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.
Vince Graham and Robert Turner share a formula for success.
Down in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, two young developers are mastering the art and technique of building neighborhoods and towns. Vince Graham and Robert Turner have known each other...
More than 250 planning and design , educators, and public policy makers gathered in February for the conference “Urbanisms: New and Other.” Hosted by the University of California at Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, the conference was...
In a survey reaching half the town’s households, 63 percent of the residents reported using their cars less than they did in their previous community. Only 8 percent said they drive more, and 29 percent reported no change in their driving habits.
A firsthand look at the development and building of a sustainable community can be found in the new book Designing Sustainable Communities: Learning from Village Homes by Judy and Michael Corbett. The book focuses on the authors’ innovative 1970s...
On the northeastern edge of Columbus, Ohio’s fastest growing metropolitan area, the new town of Easton is taking shape. While this 1,200-acre planned, mixed-use community is dominated by office buildings, parking lots, and a conventional strip mall...
Frijoles Village, a traditional neighborhood development in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is now called Aldea. More importantly, an equity investor, FCA/Holly Mortgage of Houston, has been found for the project.
Modular housing designs by Frank Lloyd Wright which have not been built in 80 years are getting a renaissance in Washington Square, a housing development which broke ground in February in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The design of Wright’s American...
Architect Daniel Parolek of Envision Design in Berkeley, California, has designed the winning entry in the New Growth Area category of the international competition Housing the Next Ten Million.
After a search of a year and a half,Iowa City has selected a development team for the Peninsula neighborhood. The purchase price for the 70-acre site, of which only about 40 acres is developable, is approximately $1.3 million. The neighborhood,...
By Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck
From Sprawl to Smart Growth:Successful Legal, Planning, and Environmental Systems, is a new book by lawyer Robert Freilich, the editor of The Urban Lawyer. The book describes how smart growth tools have been used around the country, explains...
Information and materials on appropriate projects are being sought for a book about town centers and main streets. Author Chuck Bohl of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will focus on the urban design and development challenges of...