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 General Services Administration, the primary building space provider for federal agencies, seeks to support smart growth.
GSA’s Center for Urban Development and Livability held its first national meeting in Washington, DC, in September....
The former site of a state mental hospital near downtown Northamp-ton, Massachusetts, will become a new urbanist project called The Village at Hospital Hill. The master plan by Calthorpe Associates envisions a commercial district on the project’s...
Albuquerque, New Mexico, has a new plan to revitalize its languishing downtown, where office and retail vacancy rates both top 15 percent. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the Alvarado project is unusual because it is financed primarily by a...
Groundbreaking is underway at San Elijo Ranch, a 640-acre new urbanist project in San Diego, California. The developer will start with a substantial town center, including 224,000 square feet of retail and 767 residential units. The town center will...
NUN: What, in your opinion, are the most important trends in retail at the moment, and which of those have a particular impact on new urbanist retail?
Gibbs: The hottest trend in retailing now is to build what the chains call lifestyle shopping...
Nothing can be built unless it is financed, and that is why it is urgent that lenders become educated about the New Urbanism. A Wharton School study (preliminary findings were reported in the last issue of New Urban News) identified significant...
A second listserv on the New Urbanism is now on the web, focusing on design. To subscribe to PRO-URB send the following message to listserv@listserv.uga.edu: Subscribe Pro-Urb your first name your last name. The CNU listserv, a longstanding NU forum...
Valuing the New Urbanism: the Impact on Prices of the New Urbanism on Single-Family Homes, written by George Washington University economists Mark Eppli and Charles Tu and published by the Urban Land Institute, contains valuable research for...
New Jersey was the first state to adopt a separate building code for older buildings, according to John Patella, senior policy advisor with the Department of Community Affairs. In the first year of the code, 1998, rehabilitation work in the state’s...
The Environmental Protection Agency is now soliciting proposals for the FY 1999/2000 Sustainable Development Challenge Grant (SDCG). The program “challenges communities to invest in a sustainable future” and encourages “place-based approaches to...
The University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning, headed by new urbanist Doug Kelbaugh, received a $30 million gift from philanthropist Alfred Taubman. The gift will allow the college to hire new faculty, create a new program in...
JPI, a major Texas-based developer of luxury apartments, is seeking final approval for Jefferson Center, a 109-acre mixed residential, office, and retail project north of Austin, Texas. The proposed development of 1,500 dwellings would be located in...