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.
Many home builders believe that attached garages are necessary from a marketing standpoint, but actual buyer choices at two new traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) where detached garages are optional call that assumption into question....
Dramatic crime reduction has occurred in two public housing projects designed with new urbanist principles.
Two broad approaches can make safe places. The fortress strategy is exemplified by gated communities. New urbanists take the opposite...
The November and December issues of Architecture Magazine contain a lively, two-part debate on the merits of the New Urbanism (NU) by Harvard professor Alex Krieger and noted new urbanist planner Andres Duany. Krieger, a frequent NU critic,...
Essayist Bettina Drew explores the American cultural landscape in Crossing the Expendable Landscape, described as a contemporary urban travelogue dealing with the consequences of built environments that fail to reflect regional, historic, and social...
Sprawl control and “smart growth” emerged as mainstream issues in the November elections, when initiatives limiting state funding for sprawl and implementing urban growth boundaries were approved by voters. In preelection barnstorming speeches for...
The new urbanist redevelopment plan for St. Louis Park Town Center was recently submitted for approval to the Metropolitan Council of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and is expected to be adopted by the end of January. The project’s three and four-storey...
Post Properties and Federal Realty Trust, two real estate investment trusts that have invested heavily in The New Urbanism, have announced a strategic alliance. The companies will jointly develop mixed-use urban projects with “main street retail”...
Leading new urbanists are working together to create a new school of architecture that focuses on traditional architecture and design. The Institute of Traditional Architecture will be based on a formal apprenticeship system similar to the one used...
An analysis by the Texas Transportation Institute shows that road widening has had virtually no impact on the growth of traffic congestion in major urban areas in the last 15 years. The analysis by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), a...
The land use plan for Curtis Park West, one of the first new urbanist neighborhoods proposed on a “brownfield,” inner city site, was presented to the Sacramento Planning Commission in November. The first session for the project’s Environmental...
Madison, Georgia, recently adopted a zoning ordinance creating a Traditional Neighborhood District. It requires compact, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented streets that must be interconnected, with blocks at least 300 feet but no more than 600 feet in...
Brylen Homes is building houses with innovative windows in Amelia Park, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Using a technique that makes aluminum windows appear similar to traditional wood windows, Brylen...