New Urban News

A professional newsletter for planners, developers, architects, builders, public officials and others who are interested in the creation of human-scale communities.

The online articles below represent a portion of the material available in the printed version of New Urban News. To get the full printed publication, subscribe.

March 2009,

Vol. 14, No. 2

The case for the simple grid

In these austere times, some urbanists are advocating greater use of the traditional rectilinear grid — an efficient, less expensive, but also challenging pattern.

Fed stimulus seen as ‘down payment’ on smart growth

The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed on Feb. 17 left advocates of compact and transit-oriented development practically biting their tongues. Only a small portion of the spending explicitly fits the smart-growth agenda, but disappointment was muted — in part because of signs that the Obama team may soon take more direct action on development issues.

Sustaining the New Urbanism

New urbanists ponder how they can adapt to the new economic climate and avoid the fate of their predecessors.

Commentary: Helping the New Urbanism avoid the generic

For several years, I’ve heard critics charge that new urbanist developments look too much alike, that they appear to be from the same mold. Mostly I’ve dismissed those complaints as coming from people who haven’t traveled widely enough. And yet I too have noticed the sameness of some new urbanist production.

Available in print only:

Economic sustainability is about placemaking

Lessons from a quarter-century of development in Arlington, Virginia

Cottages pass the aesthetics test; sales postponed

The cottages were conceived as a model of small-lot development — applicable to vacant land in many towns and cities.

Strategies for a successful corner market

One of the basic tenets of the retail industry is that a store must be located near high levels of automobile traffic. It comes as a surprise, then, to see Marsala’s Market thrive in the neighborhood center of New Town at St. Charles, Missouri — far from any drive-by traffic or tourist destination.

Costs rise in the suburbs

“Drive till you qualify” is no longer a viable option for working families.

Toronto eyes city-wide light-rail network

Government leaders in Toronto are planning to install a network of light-rail lines that will greatly expand transit service across Canada’s largest city.

Citifying Vancouver’s first suburban shopping center

Oakridge Centre, which in 1959 became the first automobile-oriented shopping center in Vancouver, British Columbia, is expected to be reshaped in the next few years into a high-density transit-oriented development mixing retail, employment, housing, and public amenities.

Managing regional growth to fight climate change

Measuring the effect of regional growth on carbon dioxide emissions is likely to be on the cutting edge of planning in the next decade.

A duplex that looks like a single house

In two developments within the past year, Wolff Lyon Architects of Boulder, Colorado, has produced two-family houses that have two fronts.

Pittsburgh slag hill becoming a neighborhood

A 120-foot-high hill of slag in Pittsburgh continues to be transformed into a neighborhood called Summerset at Frick Park.

Book reviews:

Materials for Sustainable Sites

By Meg Calkins

Urban Design for an Urban Century:

Placemaking for People

By Lance Jay Brown, David Dixon, and Oliver Gillham

Also: CNU Update

Plus: •  A battle is being waged in South Carolina regarding a highway proposal • “30 Top Innovators of the Past 30 Years” • D’Iberville, Mississippi • Clarksburg Town Center •  “agricultural urbanism” •  Temple Terrace • Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood • The Infill Design Toolkit • Center for Applied Transect Studies • Streetsblog • promote higher-density development around transit stations • Portland City Council • Peter Katz • Robert and Daryl Davis • Phyllis Bleiweis • Jackie Benson • Monica Quigley • Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists • Jason Miller.