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 first-of-its-kind study measuring market demand for new urbanist housing in the Philadelphia region is being funded by the GreenSpace Alliance of Southeastern Pennsylvania and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania. The study, by Zimmerman-Volk Associates...
A visit to new urbanist communities in Oregon inspired South Dakota developer Doug Metcalf to bring aspects of TND to Brandon, a city of 6,000 inhabitants outside Sioux Falls. Metcalf designed the 40-acre Tall Grass Village adjacent to an upscale...
Midtown Commons, a 79-acre traditional neighborhood development (TND) near Madison, Wisconsin, is planned to become the focal point of the approximately 500-acre High Point/Raymond neighborhood now beginning construction. Though Midtown Commons is...
The Seaside Institute’s conference December 2
through 5, Building and Rebuilding Traditional Neighborhoods, promises to take participants on a step-by-step journey through the development and redevelopment process and will offer case studies of...
Market Square in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is probably the most significant new urbanist retail development to open in 1999. Market Square is a new downtown shared by Kentlands and Lakelands, adjacent traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs)...
“Exploring (New) Urbanism,” the conference held at the Harvard Design School in March 1999, is now available on CD-ROM. The disc contains complete, unedited video footage of the proceedings, including speeches by Peter Calthorpe, Andres Duany, and...
If California wants to continue to attract new businesses and remain a good place to work and live, the state must support smart growth with public funds, concludes California State Treasurer Philip Angelides in a recently released special edition...
Seaside’s surroundings are about to change. The WaterColor development has broken ground adjacent to the famous TND. The project will include a resort hotel, 1,440 housing units, as well as retail and office space.
St. Michaels, Maryland, a town of 700 homes on Chesapeake Bay, must decide whether to approve a new urbanist project or allow conventional development. The Midland Companies of Washington, D.C., proposed Miles Point, a 375-unit TND, on an 89-acre...
Construction is underway in West Park Village, a 225-acre TND located in the 2,000-acre Westchase development near Tampa, Florida. Designed by RTKL, the project is one of the first transit-oriented developments in Florida. It features several...
Playa Vista in West Los Angeles recently lost its most prominent tenant when DreamWorks SKG scrapped their plans for a studio. The facility represented only 4 percent of the entire development, and the loss won’t affect the rest of the building...
The physical components of the New Urbanism — the houses, streets, and neighborhoods — are designed to foster social cohesion and civic engagement, but an attractive public realm alone does not make a vibrant community. A relatively new type of...