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.
“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...
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...
The full 12 miles of the Hiawatha Line, the first light-rail route in the Twin Cities, opened last December and is now attracting about 20,400 passenger trips each weekday. High ridership — the line is exceeding projections by 46 percent — is...
For years, one of the biggest disappointments of Columbia, Maryland, has been that rather than erect a real town center, the Rouse Company built an enclosed shopping mall in the heart of its 1960s “new town.” Now, however, there’s serious talk about...
A meeting will be held in Manhattan in September to organize the NY/NJ Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Contact Ted Andrews (edandrews@earthlink.net or 212/514-7500) for the date and meeting place. u
A proposal to transform Tysons Corner into “Northern Virginia’s downtown” is getting a skeptical response in some quarters. The owners of 2.5 million sq. ft. Tysons Corner Center, the largest shopping mall in metropolitan Washington, have asked RTKL...
Development of Cornerstone, a new town center in Parma Heights, Ohio (see April 2004 New Urban News), came to a halt after a principal developer, Joanne Schneider, was forced out of the $85 million project because of allegations of state securities...
New data has come out quantifying office workers’ support for retail, according to retail consultant and town planner Robert Gibbs. “A recent survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers found that office workers make a significant amount...
Matt Taecker has left Catalyst to form his own firm, Taecker Urban Design & Planning in Berkeley, California, which will focus on revitalization of urban neighborhoods through design and community organizing. Taecker intends to emphasize...
Danish architect Jan Gehl, who shared CNU XIII closing keynote duties with author James Howard Kunstler, was a modernist and “less is more” believer when he graduated from architecture school in 1960. Then he married a psychologist and set himself...
Developer Scott Wolstein is proposing a $225 million mixed-use neighborhood on the east banks of “the Flats,” an entertainment-oriented area along the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland. In an area that has deteriorated during the past several...
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) was tapped to create a plan for a 148-acre former State Hospital campus, a major undeveloped site in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. The Central Carolina Community Foundation was selected by Gov. Mark Sanford...