May 4 is the anniversary of two important historical events, both taking place on the East Coast of the US, eighty years apart, that have helped shape modern planning and urbanism for the better around the world. Only the first occurrence is widely...
How places from Seligman, Arizona, to Buffalo, New York, have become aware of their history and charms—including planning and design—to turn urban failure into success.
Hammond Downtown Master Plan has enabled the Northwest Indiana city to kick start its downtown revival. Speck & Associates and Stantec’s Urban Places won a Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the CNU 2023 Charter...
A beautifully illustrated article on the Placemakers website offers ideas on compact living, based on case studies of “missing middle” housing types in a village in Wales. Author Susan Henderson, an urban designer and coding expert who is based in...
Downtown Westminster in Westminster, Colorado, is the redevelopment of a former mall into a walkable center, led by the city. Torti Gallas + Partners won a Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the 2023 CNU Charter...
Goha Sefer—The New Urban Quarter in Gondar, Ethiopia, is a 50-acre neighborhood plan in the historic African city. Metaya Tilahun of Notre Dame won a Student Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of CNU's 2023 Charter...
Features
Streets Five scenarios that make street transformation possible
Why street design has not kept pace with automotive safety improvements, and what you can do about it.
Transit, TOD Ten steps toward autonomous urbanism
Here's a playbook for municipal leaders and citizens on the road to smart city technology.
Better Cities & Towns Archive
Urban design elevates state university
How do you propel a second-tier state university into academia’s upper echelon? In the case of the University of Connecticut, you spend billions of...
Wisconsin TND law achieves mixed results
In 1999, Wisconsin passed the first and only state law in the US requiring municipalities to have traditional neighborhood development codes. Eight...
America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire
By Mark L. GillemUniversity of Minnesota Press, 2007, 384 pp., $24.95 paperback.
Construction could begin as early as this fall
Construction could begin as early as this fall on 4,000- acre Southwood, the first of several planned traditional neighborhood developments by the St...
Great Ideas
Suburbia was a housing program
We used to understand that housing construction was in the public interest
ADDISON DEL MASTRO OCT. 12, 2022
