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 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has begun distributing Portland: Quest for the Livable City, a 57-minute film that examines the Oregon metro area’s efforts to reduce incursions on the natural environment and grow more densely within an urban...
“The Story of Sprawl,” a two-DVD set of historic films ranging from Lewis Mumford’s The City, produced in 1939, to No Time for Ugliness, produced by the American Institute of Architects in 1965, has been released by Planetizen at $29.99. Viewers can...
After 5 years, Dhiru Thadani “disbanded” the Washington, DC, Town Planning Studio of Ayers/Saint/Gross, explaining that the firm no longer supports his approach to traditional town planning. The studio won 4 CNU Charter Awards and 3 AIA Chapter...
Mixed-use development at the Columbia Town Center in Columbia, Maryland, and at Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah, is being delayed by the depressed economy and by the bankruptcy filing of the Chicago-based owner, General Growth Properties (GGP)....
While the other three architects’ house proposals were all “contemporary” in design — in one case weirdly so — Mouzon’s energy-efficient house had a traditional appearance except for a few unfamiliar elements.
Research tells us that CO2 from transportation is the result of a location’s accessibility to major destinations and the design characteristics of an area. Thus, both where development goes and how it is designed matter.
The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Environmental Health released a major policy statement in late May calling for communities to be designed to facilitate physical activity, especially among children. About 17 percent of American...
Despite the improvement in the fortunes of many urban centers in the past decade, the Brookings Institution says “employment steadily decentralized between 1998 and 2006: 95 out of 98 metro areas saw a decrease in the share of jobs located within...
Local road networks are included in “CLEAN TEA” legislation that was introduced in both the US Senate and House of Representatives in March. CLEAN TEA allocates revenues from carbon trading, which according to one estimate could generate $3 trillion...
A “Laneway Loft House” — a 624 sq. ft. dwelling designed to be placed along an alley — was the star of this year’s BC Home + Garden Show in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the urging of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, Smallworks...
Oklahoma City, which ranked dead last in Prevention magazine’s 2008 assessment of sizable American cities for walkability, commissioned Jeff Speck to tell the city how to improve conditions for pedestrians downtown. Speck says Oklahoma City’s...
Miami, Florida, and St. Paul, Minnesota, decided in March to adopt Complete Streets policies. Enactment of Complete Streets policies, which aim to make the transportation system work for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders as well as for...