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.
On an opening night that includes a video message from the Prince of Wales, Villaraigosa says New Urbanism presents an “ideal opportunity” to transform the nation’s second-largest city.
The new Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa,...
Progress toward drawing up environmental standards for neighborhood design — and thus allying New Urbanism with the increasingly potent “green building” movement — was highlighted during the June annual conference of the Congress for the New...
Also planned adjacent to New Town is New Town Gateway — a mostly commercial town center that fits directly into the street grid of New Town. The 36-acre Gateway project was designed by 180 Degrees Design Studio, which completed architectural work on...
Calgary, Alberta, is moving forward on a plan to turn a bedraggled section of downtown into a predominantly residential “East Village” that will be home to 10,000 people. The City Council approved an Area Development Plan emphasizing ”high density,...
After four and a half years without missing an issue, The Technical Page authors Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell have taken a summer sabbatical. They will be back with their next installment in September.
Lakewood, a 200-acre new urban, mixed-use community in Athens, Georgia, was scheduled to break ground in June (see images below). The project, under development by Shane and Mike Dekle, includes 334 single-family detached houses, 88 townhouses, 94...
A 30-acre downtown extension called South End is under construction in Memphis, Tennessee, and is expected to be home to 3,000 to 4,000 residents in five years, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The first residents of the mixed-use project...
“I believe in New Urbanism,” South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said after listening to Andres Duany present a proposal for creating the “Bull Street Neighborhood,” a mixed-use development on a 178-acre state hospital campus in downtown Columbia. The...
Grow Smart Rhode Island has put together “Smart Growth Yellow Pages,” an automated online directory that helps people involved in smart growth projects find others they can work with. See www.growsmartri.com/yellowpages/.
Torti Gallas and Partners is opening a Los Angeles office this summer, to be headed by principal Neal Payton. The full-service new urbanist firm has a staff of 150, but until now has operated out of one office in Silver Spring, Maryland. Torti...
In his “State of CNU” address on the opening night of CNU, CNU board chair Hank Dittmar recognized the “immense contributions” of CNU cofounders Stefanos Polyzoides, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Robert Davis, who have elected to become emeritus...
Researchers presented findings at
the Congress for the New Urbanism annual conference that show substantial energy savings from higher-density urbanism — greater savings than can be achieved from the US government Energy Star program (see...