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.
By John A. Dutton Skira Architecture Library, Milano 2000. 223 pp., Softcover: $29.95. Just a cursory glance at this book reveals that John Dutton has put together a worthy successor to Peter Katz’ seminal The New Urbanism, published seven...
Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck will be released in paperback on April 16. $18.
As ever larger schools on the urban fringe replace historic institutions, a new report identifies public policy changes needed to save neighborhood schools.
Why is only one in eight children walking or bicycling to school these days? Why do...
“The mistake cities get caught in is having to build a ‘good business climate.’ What they have to do is build a people climate.”
—Richard Florida, professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, quoted in The...
Planning for a New Century: The Regional Agenda brings together 12 planners, urban designers, and educators to examine smart growth and livable communities. The book is edited by Jonathan Barnett, an urban designer and a professor of the Practice of...
Montgomery County, Maryland, is pursuing two transit-oriented development (TOD) projects around the Twinbrook and Shady Grove stations on the Washington DC region’s Metro system. Two charrettes, led by Design Collective, an architecture and planning...
In Costa Contra County, California, a February charrette produced a new vision for development around the Pleasant Hill BART commuter rail station. The design team included architects and town planners Lennertz Coyle & Associates, New Urbanism...
CNU has released its mall study, Greyfields into Goldfields, in which PricewaterhouseCoopers concludes that approximately 7 percent of the nation’s regional malls are greyfields, i.e., in steep decline and ripe for redevelopment. The firm...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention turn their attention to the connection between community design and people’s level of physical activity.
For decades, health scientists have warned us that Americans are more sedentary and more obese...
An emphasis on urban design inspired by community involvement is evident at an increasing number of architecture schools. The College Architecture and Design at Lawrence Technological University in South-field, Michigan, has documented one such...
Canada’s Grow Homes and Next Homes have made home ownership affordable through reduced size and modular design. The concept may be a good fit for small-lot, traditional neighborhoods.
The first Grow Home prototype was built on the campus of...
Portland, Oregon, well known for its urban growth boundary and transit villages, may get the nation’s first Home Depot designed to fit into a Main Street setting. The 166,000 sq. ft. Halsey Place project represents a radical step for the nation’s...