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.
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company has designed the Life magazine Dream House for 2000. The Lifespan House, as the dwelling is called, is under construction in I’On, a traditional neighborhood development in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Designed...
The Environmental Journalism Center has published Covering Urban Sprawl: Rethinking the American Dream, a primer for journalists on the social, economic, and
environmental impacts of sprawl, by David Goldberg of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution....
At the Fall task force meeting, CNU decided to reorganize the task forces. We have grown in membership and initiatives, and are adapting to these changes. A new format for task forces will make getting involved easier and more rewarding. We will...
Construction began on the Fruitvale Transit Village in Oakland, California, in November. The $100 million, mixed-use project is centered on the Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit station. A retail and entertainment paseo will replace a current parking...
The completed renovation of a nursery building from the 1920s gives Historic Malbis in Daphne, Alabama, an architectural focal point and a link to the Greek farmers who first settled on the site in the early 1900s. The 2,500 square-foot building...
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...
The Congress for the New Urbanism has published Transportation Tech Sheets, covering traffic calming and other new urbanist transportation issues, and Principles for Inner City Neighborhood Design, on revitalization issues. These booklets are...