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.
Kennedy Smith, former director of the National Main Street Center of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, was named Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Design School for the 2005-2006 academic year. Smith is principal of Community Land Use and...
A major development was approved for the South Miami Hometown District, which is a walkable, mixed-use, transit-oriented center in the City of South Miami. The 3-block, 5-acre First National Bank of South Miami property will be developed as a mixed-...
Edited by Rahul Mehrotra, Robert Fishman, and Roy Strickland University of Michigan, 2005, distributed by Distributed Arts Press, New York, 80 to 96 pp. each, $17.95 each. Doug Kelbaugh thinks Americans would understand cities better if we...
Providence, Rhode Island, architect Bill Dennis reviewed the names of more than 600 new urban developments across North America and found more repetition than he liked. He identified 10 projects with “Commons” in their name, 30 that were called “...
The book that introduced North America to this community concept is Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, available in a second edition from Ten Speed Press ($29.95). The authors tell how...
No one has won more acclaim for designing mixed-use centers in recent years than Richard Heapes. His projects include Mizner Park, Bethesda Row, Santana Row, and Blue Back Square. Heapes has exhibited a flair for creating lively collections of...
John Norquist, chief executive officer of CNU, submitted a “friend of the court” brief to the US Supreme Court, arguing that governments do not need the power of eminent domain to carry out economic development projects. Writing as an individual...
The City of Miramar, Florida, approved final agreements necessary for Rockefeller Group Development Corporation and Kimco Developers to begin construction of the private development phase of the 54-acre Miramar Town Center. Planned by Torti Gallas...
By William Morgan Harry N. Abrams, 2004, 424 pp., hardcover $40.
Planning consultant John P. Bergan is leading a campaign to change the placement of a World War II Memorial soon to be built in Trenton’s Veterans Park. As currently planned, the memorial would be centered in the park but would be off center to the...
Santana Row, the shopping and housing development so large and costly that for a while it caused Federal Realty Investment Trust to swear off undertaking such projects, now appears to be doing well. The $455 million redevelopment of a shopping mall...
A mature and well-conceived new urban community can easily pass the “orange juice test.” That is, a resident can send a twelve-year-old son or daughter to the corner store unaccompanied to pick up some juice or other basic supplies. One could...