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.
A plan by Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh for reconfiguring a large swath of East Baltimore won an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. Produced under Ray Gindroz, the plan includes a two million sq. ft. biotech campus next...
Bradburn’s first commercial buildings — two 11,000 sq. ft., one-story retail structures — face one another at the primary entrance to the development. As such, they must enclose the street and make a strong impression on visitors. The original...
A $10.6 billion package of plans by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg would convert much of Lower Manhattan into what The New York Times calls “an urban hamlet of housing, schools, libraries and theaters, as well as other businesses.” In contrast to the...
“The improvements that HOPE VI has created in cities are dramatic,” says former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. HOPE VI developments “may not be classical New Urbanism in every case, but they are uniformly better than what was there,” according to...
New urbanists in search of successful role models might profit from a look at Dade County’s Summerville development.
Though the approval process was described as “an uphill battle” by designer George Rosello of Rosello Balboa Lordi Architecture...
CNU's mailing of "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2003" did not go perfectly. If you received an empty envelope, or did not receive a copy of "Emerging Trends," please call 415-495-2255 to request a replacement.
CNU XI descends on the capital.
From the L'Enfant Plan to greenbelt towns, urban renewal, and Kentlands, the
District of Columbia has served as a laboratory for planning and design theories. This summer, the city can expect another infusion of...
Town Commons in Howell, Michigan, a relatively new traditional neighborhood development (TND), is getting a strong flow of customers through its town center shops and residential sales/leasing center. The tiny 15,000 sq. ft. retail center, anchored...
A procession of public spaces may complete a courthouse repair and expansion project.
Two years ago the McKinley County government resisted the temptation to move from downtown Gallup New Mexico — a largely intact center with many historic...
To generate respectable returns while maintaining high design standards, the developers of Bradburn use innovative construction techniques and employ a combination of production and custom builders.
When architect Andres Duany wants to provide a...
Loudoun County, Virginia, whose population nearly doubled to 170,000 in the 1990s, has adopted a package of building restrictions limiting development in a 300 sq. mi. western portion of the county to one house per ten, 20, or 50 acres, depending on...
Consultants have identified 12 miles of pedestrian-oriented retail streets in Chicago’s neighborhoods as worth safeguarding. These are shopping areas at least a quarter-mile long with buildings lining the sidewalks on both sides of the street,...