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.
In two developments within the past year, Wolff Lyon Architects of Boulder, Colorado, has produced two-family houses that have two fronts. As designed by principal Tom Lyon, each of these duplexes has one façade that faces a street and another...
A battle is being waged in South Carolina regarding a highway proposal that epitomizes the larger choices the nation faces on infrastructure investments. The highway is an extension of a beltway, I-526, that encircles much of Charleston, South...
Andres Duany came up with a creative stimulus proposal that ties into the need to retrofit suburbia. A growing number of malls across the US are “going dark,” yet are in prime locations to build new urban centers. Such sites represent the most...
Large American cities increasingly are trying to improve the aesthetics, environmental performance, or sociability of their alleys. In 2007 the City of Chicago issued “The Chicago Green Alley Handbook,” which is aimed at installing permeable paving...
Mesa, Azizona, one of the nation’s largest suburbs, with a population greater than Miami, Florida, is switching to a new urban strategy for a five-square-mile site that the city annexed for development. The Mesa Proving Grounds were used by General...
Costa Pacific Communities has begun construction of the village center of Villebois, a new urban community in Wilsonville, Oregon, the firm announced. The center includes 650 residential units and buildings with first-floor retail.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has begun awarding grants of up to $400,000 to communities that try to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity by increasing opportunities for physical activity and by improving access to healthy, affordable...
The Seaside Institute selected author James Howard Kunstler as the recipient of the 2009 Seaside Prize. The honor is awarded to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the quality and character of our communities....
The Ohio Department of Transportation announced in December that agreements have been reached on a federally funded $50 million series of road, tunnel, and intersection improvements for Cleveland’s West Shoreway, a six-lane limited-access highway,...
New Haven, Connecticut, has taken another step toward turning a short expressway near downtown into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard lined by mixed-use buildings. Nine firms have submitted bids for the task of helping the city devise a plan for...
In the nation’s capital, Jeff Speck’s new home reconciles Modern architecture and L’Enfant’s street pattern.
The Seaside Institute with Andres Duany, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Leon Krier, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Witold Rybczynski, Robert A.M. Stern, et alSeaside seems to have seared itself into the consciousness of most of the writers, who use the...