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.
Institute for Traditional Architecture (ITA) is scheduled for an official kickoff in February, 2000. The event will take place in a new chapel/community hall designed by Leon Krier, at Windsor in Vero Beach, Florida. Directors of the ITA are Krier,...
Victoria Courts is a 10-block, 44-acre new urbanist neighborhood planned by the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA). The housing authority has announced that it will demolish old public housing on the site and seek a developer through a request for...
Dadeland Mall in the Miami suburb of Kendall is not about to be boarded up. Business is good, and the mall and its surroundings enjoy status as a “regional activity center.” But in the last 30 years, a chaotic suburban landscape of piecemeal...
The third annual Partners for Smart Growth conference was held in San Diego in mid-November, drawing more than 1,000 attendees, including two governors. The conference, organized by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the US Environmental Protection...
New Urban News selected 15 projects for its first annual survey of sales in traditional neighborhood developments (TND)
Developers in TNDs report that sales in 1999 have risen slightly or stayed consistent compared to previous years. The 15...
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company has announced that the following books will be published in 2000 or 2001: DPZ: A Chronology of Buildings, by Joanna Lombard and Beth Dunlop and published by Princeton Architectural Press, will cover the...
An excellent overview of the New Urbanism trend appeared in the fall 1999 issue of Planning Commissioners Journal, a quarterly newsletter. The article was written by Philip Langdon, a writer and associate editor of the American Enterprise. Langdon...
Seven cities along U.S. Route 1 in southern Florida have pooled their resources to revitalize a 15-mile section of the ailing coastal highway. The cities, Riviera Beach, Lake Park, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Juno Beach, Jupiter, and...
A new urbanist town was planned in Ada, Michigan, to be built on a 536-acre farm and former gravel quarry. Most of the 800 units are planned to be built in the former quarry, with the 300-acre farm remaining mostly open space. The project, designed...
Beat Kahli, the developer of Avalon Park, a 1,860-acre TND east of Orlando, Florida, is taking an unusual approach to expanding the project’s fledgling town center. In October, 1999, Kahli announced that he was willing to invest in entrepreneurs who...
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $571 million in Hope VI program grants to redevelop public housing in 21 cities. A number of these projects will use new urbanist design to create new, mixed-income neighborhoods...
Charter of the New Urbanism: Region/Neighborhood, District, and Corridor/Block, Street, and Building
By the Congress for the New Urbanism McGraw Hill, New York, 1999. Large paperback, 194 pp., $49.95. Contact: 415-495-2255. Every new urbanist should have a copy of the Charter book. Critics should have a copy, too, so that they really know...