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.
The New Urbanism looks to defunct malls as possible sites for infill
development
Most cities have at least one “ghost” mall, a once-thriving enclosed mall turned boarded-up eyesore. It may have have been brought down by a bigger and flashier...
The previous millennium saw the design and construction of the world’s great cities and cathedrals. New York City, arguably the greatest metropolis at the end of the second millennium A.D., was a wilderness in 1626 when European settlers purchased...
Walgreen Co. has signed an agreement with the City of Chicago to follow new urban design guidelines in the construction of 35 Walgreens drugstores in the city during the next two years. The guidelines are designed to prevent construction of suburban...
Stephen Roulac, a real estate consultant, economist, and “futurist” frequently covers the New Urbanism on his radio show, Stephen Roulac Property Conversation. The show is broadcast every Tuesday at 12 noon on WALE AM 990, serving 3.5 million...
Lend Lease Real Estate Investments Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2000, which continues to promote the “24-hour cities” concept as the key to profitable long-term real estate investments. The annual...
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...
Washington, D.C., has some good examples of new urbanist infill housing. Parkside, in the Northeast section of the city, shows that affordable new urbanist housing can be built on a strict budget. The 26-acre site currently includes townhomes,...
A study of about 200 school sites in South Carolina concludes that schools built in the last two decades discourage children from walking to school and contribute to urban sprawl. In Wait for the Bus: How Lowcountry School Site Selection and Design...
As the nation’s largest financier of commercial and residential real estate, Bank of America wields considerable influence in the market, and the bank now claims it wants to use that influence to make the market more attentive to environmental...
Top West Coast new urbanist projects and plans were recognized at the Smart Growth conference in San Diego, when the Local Government Commission’s Center for Livable Communities presented its annual Ahwahnee Awards.
The awards for projects built in...
Pulte Homes’ Florida region remains committed to trying New Urbanism after Salamanca’s defeat.
Pulte Homes, the nation’s largest home builder, has struggled for three years to get approval for Salamanca, a 160-acre traditional neighborhood...