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.
Peter Katz, author of The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community, was interviewed on ABC World News Tonight on July 21. The subject was how the design of conventional suburbs offer teenagers little in the way of activities and richness of...
The August 16 issue of Time magazine features the article “Saving Suburbia” on traditional neigborhood developement. The Wall Street Journal covered the report Valuing the New Urbanism in its August 4 edition.
Five hundred copies of Andres Duany’s Lexicon are now available in a preliminary edition, 99 percent complete. The complete edition will be published in 2000. Contact DPZ at: (305) 644-1023.
A year-long fight over the design of a big box development in downtown Decatur, Georgia, has provided the impetus for the new, mandatory design guidelines for the historic business district. All new commercial developments must meet the guidelines...
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...
The first phase of construction is nearing completion in Afton Village, a 170-acre traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Ten single homes, twelve townhomes, and four duplexes are scheduled for completion by...
Two books explore life in Disney's new town near Orlando, Florida.
State/name Location Status (Completion)2 Developer/sponsor3 Designer4,5 Acres Characteristics Alabama 1. Blount Springs Blount Springs Construction Blount Springs DPZ 5,000 128 homes (phase1) (60% phase 1) Recolonization Partners...
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...