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.
A neighborhood of multifamily housing designed by Torti Gallas & Partners/CHK will begin construction in early spring in Celebration’s South Village. Developed by Pritzker Residential, the 50-acre project will include 720 apartments and...
The National Building Museum has established the Vincent Scully Prize in honor of the influential teacher and critic of architecture. The annual $25,000 prize will be awarded for “exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture,...
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...
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...
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, approximately 43,000 shopping centers and 1,800 enclosed malls operate in the U.S. Finding prognostications about how many of these are in trouble is not difficult. Ten years ago American...
Elements of walkable neighborhoods are marketing pluses, with the exception of higher density.
Consumers pick new urbanist (NU) community design characteristics over conventional suburban development (CSD) in most categories, according to...
A tower house design is used on steep slope lots in Cheshire, a traditional neighborhood development in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Called “treehouses,” these units designed by architect Seth Harry have a three story, 20 foot by 20 foot floor...
The Center for Livable Communities in Sacramento, California, has a Compact Development Slide Presentation available for rent at $15 or for sale at $50. Contact: (916) 448-1198.
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...