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.
Decades ago, alleys in eastern seaboard cities were inhabited mostly by the poor. Today, by contrast, they are becoming increasingly alluring to middle- and upper-income people, some of whom are willing to pay large sums for an alley home possessing...
Now that his Seaside, Florida, development is well established, Robert Davis is focusing much of his attention on two distinct parts of the world environment: the “urban room” and the “agricultural edge.” In 2002, Davis, Raymond Gindroz of Urban...
The transformation of suburban office parks into new urban town centers caught the attention of USA Today, which ran a lengthy feature on September 13 that focused on Legacy Town Center in Plano, Texas, among other projects. “Many of today’s young...
Developer Casey Roloff is getting ready to begin construction of homes in Seabrook, the first full-scale new urban beach development on the West Coast. The project in Pacific Beach, Washington, occupies 88 acres and is planned for 400 housing units...
Producer Kyle Justice has put together a 22-minute promotional video/DVD for the new town of Seabrook in Pacific Beach, Washington. The high-quality video includes footage of TNDs and interviews with developer Casey Roloff, designer Laurence Qamar,...
About 80 people attended the Next Generation meeting held at the Palmer House in Chicago prior to the Congress for the New Urbanism in June, according to Brian Wright, an organizer of the event. The Next Generation group includes about 200 new...
A new village for 550 homes, a school, shops, community center, and health center is proposed for Flintshire, in North Wales, United Kingdom. The Prince’s Foundation, Britain’s leading New Urbanism proponents, had an early role in steering the...
Juneau Avenue Partners announced in July that House of Blues Entertainment will occupy a 32,000-square-foot club and Jenco Cinemas will operate a 16-screen Cinemax theater in Milwaukee’s PabstCity project. The 1.2-million-square-foot PabstCity...
Redevelopment consistent with new urbanist principles is getting underway in Beall’s Hill, a 30-block, mostly African-American neighborhood in Macon, Georgia. In November 2001 the Knight Program in Community Building conducted a charrette that...
New Haven architect Robert Orr looked into the idea of removing the word “mobility” from New Haven municipal standards and inserting “walkability.” He hoped this might redefine the functions that the city’s streets should serve. But Peter Swift, a...
After four year as CNU’s Director of Policy and Research, Ellen Greenberg will return to the practice of city planning this September. While her focus shifts from studying and advancing new urbanist strategies to implementing them, Ellen plans to...
Edited by Stephanie E. Bothwell, Andres M. Duany, Peter J. Hetzel, Steven W. Hurtt, and Dhiru A. Thadani New Urban Press, 2004, 437 pp, $35 paperback. “As far as I’m concerned, everything is architecture, from silverware and furniture to...