“The Knot is a new vision for complete living in North Charleston, tied together by food. Drawing on the highest aspirations of LEED, WELL, and the Living Community Challenge, this mixed-used project synthesizes these certifications with the city’s unique context to create a well-connected, affordable, and enriching place to live for generations. The Knot is a 3.6 million square foot, $843 million development that proposes acquiring the site through a combination of fee simple purchases of the private parcels, while entering long-term ground leases with the City of North Charleston to acquire the publicly owned parcels. The project will cost $687 million and the financing strategy for the Knot uses the value generated from the market rate multifamily to cross-subsidize the community-oriented uses across all phases.”

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“The Quilt is a 1.62 million square foot, $850 million mixed-use development, which will be built out in two phases over six years at a cost of $663.7 million. Guided with three pillars of community, ecology, and connectivity in mind, The Quilt is a vibrant, mixed-use development which creates an activated waterfront. This edge is plugged into by a series of landscaped, pedestrian friendly areas that act as a sponge protecting the North Charleston community from the escalating threat and devastating effects of inundation. The Quilt is accessible through multiple equitable and sustainable modes of mobility, including improved public transit service and bike-ability. This new and exciting LEED™ certified neighborhood celebrates and amplifies North Charleston’s diverse population and allows the greater Charleston community to access a historically sequestered riverfront.”

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“Port Unity is a $2.2 billion mixed-use development that offers a place to work and live and create along the water while helping correct historical inequities. It is a 4.5 million sq ft development that will focus on residential living with creative industrial and retail serving as stabilizers. The project will deliver 2,488 units residential, of which 24% are affordable, along a dynamic waterfront while supplying a more equitable development strategy for the community. In partnership with the city, the project will deliver $90m worth of green resilient infrastructure and streetscape improvements across all sites. The maritime industries demand for labor will be met by providing collaborating, mentorship spaces that connect area youth to South Carolina’s HBCUs to foster industrial apprenticeships, mentorships, and other educational opportunities with university and business partners in the area. Connectivity is imagined through land and water, with a bike path to the new BRT line and a ferry service to Charleston. Channels cut into the site will allow water to gather after a storm, and the site will serve as a refuge from powerful hurricanes when necessary.”

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“‘The Leveling Field’ initiative strives to mend a history of economic, educational, and environmental inequity and create a more inclusive future for the city of North Charleston. The city’s transformation from a former naval base into an industrial centre has only benefitted a few big actors, proving to be detrimental for its people and the environment. The 2.8 million sf proposed development thus creates a framework of equity that addresses these historic barriers, by providing opportunities of learning and working for a resilient future. At the core of the proposal is the ‘Spine’, also called the ‘The Leveling Field’, flanked by 305,000 SF of educational spaces and vocational centres, 375,000 SF of flexible co-working space, in addition to housing (25% affordable), while restoring 20 acres of wetlands to maintain ecological health. This unique design allows ‘The Leveling Field’ initiative to address the urgent needs of the community while promoting long-term sustainability of the city.”

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“The Stack supports three pillars: health, culture and connection. This LEED Platinum, transit-oriented development creates a thriving, diverse and integrated community reflective of Oakland’s culture and is a catalyst for uplifting the city’s vulnerable residents. The Stack’s ambitious proposal transforms the area into a cultural and transit hub with a mission-driven, mixed-use program that drives positive social change for Oakland.”

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“Constellations bring together far apart stars to tell a story that informs, inspires, and guides. Through integrative site design and equitable community services, Konstellation seeks to create a connected and cohesive neighborhood that reflects the broad history and culture of Old Oakland.”

“Fueled by Downtown Oakland’s long history of social inequities, racial injustice and the resultant fractured development, LINKUP OAKLAND strives to become a pilot intervention in reenforcing the dots [historically significant and culturally imbued sites for Downtown Oakland] and reestablishing the links for an equitable, inclusive and well-connected Oakland. We envision our dots to strengthen the links of historical importance, allow for cultural diversity, strive for ecological sustainability, and become an economic backbone for the whole of Oakland.”

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“Just Oakland places equity at the center of the design to reframe the relationship of divisive infrastructures with the black community. The freeway is reframed as an urban commons that connects the neighborhood and activates the site to become a resource center and place for justice. The mixed-use development is anchored by cultural expression, affordable housing and health that drive the growth of the site as a model for marginalized neighborhoods.”

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“Seamlessly fusing the East Village, Paseo West, and Kansas City’s Downtown Core, Fusion is a welcoming and affordable mixed-use development, where everyone who wishes to call it home, can. Designed around two key pillars, connectivity and resilience, this LEED neighborhood embodies inclusive and sustainable growth within Kansas City.”

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“Cattlyst celebrates Kansas City’s agricultural roots while launching the city into the future of food. The development serves as a complete community focused on showcasing innovation in food technology. It leverages partnerships with existing companies, startups, and universities, as well as its location in the Central Business District, to capitalize on the growing biotech workforce by establishing itself as an innovation corridor anchored by a diverse neighborhood.”

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“EAVIRO is a mixed-used, mixed-income neighborhood that sets to redefine the built environment and quality of life within the city through economic development, sustainable and resilient design initiatives, and creating inclusive communities. The project presents a state-of-the-art Kansas City baseball stadium that is envisioned as a new economic driver that will have a catalytic and valuable impact to the future of KC.”

Learn more about EAVIRO District Development Plan

“Homebase is a transformational $1.4B mixed-use, mixed-income development anchored by Stadium 42. The relocation of the KC Royals baseball stadium to the urban core will catalyze a much needed connection between Paseo West and the East Village. Through job creation, affordable living and a forward-thinking urban transportation system, Homebase will revitalize this downtown neighborhood and become the heartbeat of KC.”

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“La Mezcla is designed around three pillars: ecology, community, and economy. This LEED Platinum, mixed-used development creates an environmentally sustainable community that remains relevant through ensuing climate change. The development seeks to bring together the socioeconomic diversity that exists between Wynwood and Edgewater despite the physical and perceived barrier occurring on the site. In creating new jobs through the commercial hubs and new corporate tenants, current residents will directly benefit from the economic growth.”

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“The LIFELINE supports the life of Midtown Miami – connecting the cultural life of Wynwood, the Design District and Miami Beach, while sustaining life through resilience and equity. By integrating a dense, mixed-use district with a cultural corridor on top of a new Tri-Rail station and a food distribution hub, the LIFELINE will Elevate Mobility, Sustain Habitat and Celebrate Culture.”

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“Cubikko is a pivotal mixed-use and transit-oriented development aiming to reunite the Wynwood, Midtown Miami and Edgewater communities and to enhance diversity across the region. The site has been an industrial urban neighborhood cut apart by the north-south railway and has been facing gentrification pressures. Cubikko includes a multimodal transportation system which will connect the diverse communities of Wynwood, Edgewater, and Midtown, while enhancing design culture and diversity, and mixed-income communal living to celebrate the vitality and diversity of the city of Miami.”

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“Rock Ridge is a community that redefines resilience. Located on the literal “rock ridge” of Florida, the relative high point of the flat Florida coast, we see this as a physical and metaphorical place of refuge to create social resilience, where people of different incomes and ages can build connections and where we can embrace change without subsuming existing communities. On-site transit, medical services, mixed-income housing, and job opportunities create a place built to endure.”

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“The CincyStitch repositions a pivotal stretch of Cincinnati’s waterfront not as the city’s edge, but as the center of a connected region. Through four threads – Culture + History, Public Realm, Transportation, And New Economies – the proposal strategically expands the site and creates connections to break down barriers across geography and time. Together these four threads weave an urban tapestry rich in history but geared to the future; a 24-hour neighborhood bustling with city dwellers, and a center for new commerce that connects citizens across the region socially and
physically.”

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“Promoting current and proposed transportation infrastructure, the ANCHOR becomes a place of convergence.The ANCHOR not only to connects the riverfront to downtown, but binds the region. Utilizing its strategic location, the ANCHOR embeds itself as a hub to the streetcar extension to Northern Kentucky, a regional rail line, Cincinnati Red Bikes, and the River Center Transit. Serving as a critical base for industries that endorse start-up innovation, creativeness, and wellness on a regional scale.”

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“The Landing exemplifies the design potential of green infrastructure projects that create vibrant public and commercial spaces promoting perpetual and meaningful social connectivity. The project’s emphasis on green infrastructure and renewable district energy production aligns with the Cincinnati Green Plan in its effort to make the city 100% renewable energy by 2035. These projects put Cincinnati at the forefront of sustainability in cities and act as the gateway from a coal powered, industrial past into a sustainable and connected future…. By bridging together the design of dynamic public spaces and ecologically sustainable connected systems, The Landing solidifies Cincinnati as the model for twenty-first century urbanism and development.”

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“Cincinnati United provides a 21st century gateway into the city by reimagining a historically divisive edge as a welcoming threshold. While honoring the past, it also defines a future focused on diversity and collaboration. This iconic new development is achieved through several parallel strategies. A new cultural hub, Freedom Hall, integrates closely with the existing Freedom Center and a dynamic new boardwalk, as well as a repositioned park and riverfront. Simultaneously, a progressive, mixed-use development strategy commences with the creation of significant density above the freeway, bridging to downtown and descending into a lively, riverfront village. Improved streetscapes and connectivity facilitate a rich pedestrian environment throughout the entire development. Transit, attractions, and green spaces are linked not only within the newly activated district, but also throughout the region. Phasing is optimized to generate revenue, residency, and an attractive identity for the site.”

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“Montage is a transformational mixed-use development at the junction of Toronto’s Downtown and East End neighborhoods. The project is an environmentally sustainable cultural hub that integrates cinema, creative industries, and Toronto’s park system to create a unique and lively 24/7 neighborhood. Akin to clipping together film scenes, Montage facilitates the collaboration of surrounding communities and creative thinkers. It promotes communication and innovation with venues for theatre and music, and spaces for the public. Sunlight Park reclaims over eight acres of waterfront park space adjoining Corktown Common and provides panoramic views of downtown Toronto. Underneath the park is an engineered flood mitigation and water recycling system that uses storm water overflow to create dynamic seasonal landscapes. At the center of the development, the Nell Shipman Cinema Centre and Broadview Plaza seamlessly integrate the recreational, cultural, and professional elements of the district.”

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“Creating a space for regeneration, recreation, and reflection, Absorption is a mixed-use, transit-oriented development that seeks to transform East Toronto’s local ecology and local community into a smart, healthy, and equitable transit center. The development addresses four challenges that Toronto faces in its evolution to become one of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities: a lack of ecological renewal, social equity, a vibrant economy, and authentic cultural identity.”

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Eastern Link is Toronto’s newest cultural connection. It’s a neighborhood fueled by Toronto’s economic engine and inspired by the independent spirit of surrounding communities. It is a vibrant cultural center and a local-serving mixed-use development.

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“Don River Landing is a dynamic mixed-use community situated on the eastern bank of the Don River. From its strategic location adjacent to the largest planned real estate development in Canada, Don River Landing links Toronto’s traditional downtown to a powerful new economic, cultural, and transit-oriented hub. Thoughtful planning revitalizes the river’s edge, connects the community, enriches cultural amenities, and creates Toronto’s next great neighborhood. The quay terraces down to provide access to the Don River. Community ties are built and strengthened through the market at Sunlight Square. In the heart of Sunlight Park, the landmark Edge Theatre utilizes the existing BMW dealership to host year-round events in collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival. These elements make Don River Landing an attractive and desirable place to call home in one of the world’s great financial cities.”

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Rooted was built upon the inherent power of food culture to bring together people of diverse backgrounds in a comfortable and lively space. Chicago has long served as the heartland for food production, processing, and distribution due to its prime location as the gateway to the east and west. By creating a center of gravity for food and manufacturing, a unique urban experience materializes, tying together past, present, and future. The proposal not only reimagines the localization of the food supply chain, but creates an equitable and inclusive environment conducive to building human capital. The core of the development revolves around the coevolution of modern manufacturing, education, and a productive landscape. As the development takes root, it resourcefully meets the needs of Chicago today, and evolves to meet the needs of Chicago tomorrow. Rooted creates a uniquely gritty, transparent, and adaptable urban community where both residents and visitors alike can make, learn, and grow.

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The IN-district is a strategy that preserves and celebrates the historic context of the Chicago North Branch area through a revitalization into a new riverside center for culture, innovation, and industry. By connecting light industries, maker spaces and innovation startups, educational spaces, and public amenities, The IN-district nurtures employment opportunities, as well as community growth. Pedestrian trails link the industrial blocks to mixed-use areas while providing access to the riverfront and weaving together the energy from both sides of the river. The three main gathering spaces of the site—INnovation Square, INdustry Square and INteraction Square– serve as hubs to foster collaboration and community. The overall goal of the IN-district is to revitalize the area by tapping into its original life source; to preserve and enhance the existing industrial activity in the area while evolving it into a vibrant and diverse community.

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The Assembly Line project enhances connections between neighboring communities and the river through a high-efficiency manufacturing district with a 21st century twist. Numerous community workshops offer a reinterpretation of the site’s manufacturing past. Skilled laborers can use the workshops to provide valuable services while artisans and designers can create in inspiring environments.

In keeping with the district’s heritage, the Fleet and Facility Management buildings are preserved and repurposed to host meeting spaces, a start-up incubator, and an all-year-round farmers’ market selling food grown locally and on-site. A productive cluster emerges allowing entrepreneurs to encounter potential clients in the meeting places, open an office in the incubator, start production in the workshops and live just a corner away.

The proposed neighborhood will be an exciting place to live, work and play, with a renewed access to the river for leisure activities, plenty of retail stores, cafes, bars, and active transportation opportunities.

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NorthWorks connects communities, adapts industry, and engages the North Branch of the Chicago River. These ideas are embodied in four unique places: Maker’s Yard, The Landing,  The Bend, and The Basin.

Maker’s Yard, the heart of NorthWorks, is the center of creativity and innovation in this vibrant community. Maker’s Yard enables manufacturing industries to adapt to new technology while providing diverse employment and housing opportunities.  Commuters access Chicagoland through The Landing, a new transit hub which connects regional rail and the 606 trail with the new water taxi harbor and reestablished bus lines.  The Bend reclaims the river, transforming it into a remediative public park lined by town homes. Lastly, The Basin is a destination where people can engage with the river and one another through recreation and entertainment.

Together, these elements establish NorthWorks as a community where industry, communities, nature, and neighborhoods work.

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The Midtown Beat draws from Atlanta’s rich cultural and economic history to ensure its continued place as the primary hub of the American Southeast. The plan weaves together a strategy for the redevelopment of the Midtown neighborhood that capitalizes on some of the district’s most defining “beats:” innovation, culture, and health.

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Midtown Atlanta has become a hub for post-recession development activity. With booming tech and medical industries and a burgeoning film industry, the region is poised for continued growth. Despite the increasing presence of the entertainment industry, the city lacks a defined center of entertainment culture. Developments with social spaces and collaborative programs, such as Ponce City Market and the Atlanta BeltLine, have been received well by a public ready to leave behind its insular, suburban past and embrace a more vibrant public realm. In order to create a differentiated, market-feasible program, capitalize on a site positioned at the center of the city’s major neighborhoods, and embrace an entertainment culture, the Stage Street development offers an integrated, mixed-use, mixed-income program with a pedestrian orientation and social spaces to help Atlantans break the fourth wall of culture by stepping out of their private spaces and onto the stage of a shared Midtown experience. The proposed development program for the Midtown South Development Partnershipis rooted in a thorough market analysis, targeting gaps in current product types and pursuing those with strong projected absorption and rent growth.

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MA·TRIX / ma triks/ n. 1. An environment or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure.
[MATRIX] environments foster creativity and are often the place from which thoughts and ideas become reality. Matrix Park is a mixed-use development program aptly named to reflect Midtown Atlanta’s role as the CITY’S LEAD DISTRICT IN TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS. Promoting urban green space, connectivity, walkability, sustainability and opportunities to engage with the community are just a few key components of Matrix Park.

[CIRCUITRY] can be identified as a fundamental characteristic shared between urban planning, computer sciences, and balanced living. The Midtown Alliance has created Blueprint Midtown to support and facilitate continued growth in the district which reflects strong and healthy circuitry. By complimenting uses and design alongside approved projects within the area, Matrix is poised to collaborate, rather than compete with, the development and direction established within the area. The program is thus designed to sync its residential, entertainment and green space components with such retail and office projects as The Midtown Mile & Georgia Institute of Technology’s (GT) High Performance Computer Center (HPCC) through a fluid and organic design strategy.

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Converge ATL weaves together a hybrid-urban landscape that increases value for all real estate blocks in Midtown Atlanta by integrating the disparate city blocks separated by I-85. Four distinct elements: The Bridge Plaza, Urban Blocks, Cultural Wedge, and Tech Wedge stitch Midtown together to create maximum value by exposing all buildings to open public space.

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“The Crossing development sows the seeds of resilience across the Bienville, Iberville, and Lafitte neighborhoods. By connecting tourist and native, greenway and park, neighborhood and city, The Crossing functions not only as a marketplace of goods, but of ideas and relationships. This commingling of people and place fosters diversity, neighborhood cohesion, and economic opportunity.”

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“Planning a community’s future lies on unlocking its past. The project Tremé 2.0 lays at the southern tip of the old Tremé district, one of New Orleans’ first urbanized neighborhoods outside of the Vieux Carre Rampart. In the 1810s, Tremé’s development had not only connected the city’s cultural center with the vast natural hinterland for the first time, but also created a new urban lifestyle for the New Orleanians of the 19th century. Today, the proposed 23 acre development project expects Tremé to continue its great tradition to make innovative transformation to the Crescent City, as it did 200 years ago.”

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“Quartier Vert creates a vision of a community that operates as an intersection piece between communities, corridors of activity, and a variety of users. Intertwined within each of these strategies exists a neighborhood fabric that suggests the interaction that can and should exist between the site and its neighbors. The neighborhoods occupying and surrounding the site have been shaped and shifted by patterns of development and natural disasters, but in the midst of it all, a sense of pride and rich culture history has been preserved. Capitalizing on the existing locational and socioeconomic advantages of the area, Quartier Vert seeks to revive and enhance the surrounding community.”

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“Inspired by the architectural and cultural heritage of the project site and its adjacency to major city destinations and amenities, Claiborne Grove recalls the rich landscape that once characterized North Claiborne Avenue and prioritizes redevelopment of the street most critical to the growth and transformation of the neighborhood. The proposal’s central design element is “the Grove,” a linear multi-purpose park and urban landscape sited below elevated Interstate 10. Uniting the Grove is a vast canopy lattice structure wrapping underneath I-10 and extending along the elevated highway in rhythmic form. Built of locally salvaged wood, the canopy captures the armature, materiality, and whimsy of New Orleans’ famed oak trees, its bold form drawing residents and visitors alike to a one-of-a-kind urban park space.”

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The University of Maryland’s winning design—“Chords”—proposed a partnership between the existing private owners and the state of Tennessee. The design captured the experiences of a diverse group of people brought together by regional connectors, culture, living, and fitness “strings.” The “strings” are intended to strengthen the connections to downtown and surrounding communities, as well as nearby amenities such as the ballpark, waterfront, and Centennial Mall.

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“Uptown Nashville” seeks to rebuild the current district identity to create a new and improved Sulphur Dell District. With the stadium development and other existing and proposed amenities acting as a catalyst, Uptown Nashville is intended to leverage existing and future amenities to foster the creation of a healthy, diverse, and profitable community.

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The “Sulphur Dell Market District” is a healthy-lifestyle community that catalyzes the revitalization of the city of Nashville, Tennessee, and is prototypical of resilient urbanism for cities of a similar size. The proposal is based on a landscape framework of layered strategies of ecology, mobility, and food, along with creating the conditions for a diverse and resilient urban district that will continue to change and mature over time.

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“Greenheart Village” establishes a new model of urban living, initiating the rebranding of Nashville as an active, healthy, and engaged community. Greenheart Village uses adaptive infrastructure to respond to environmental, social, and economic changes, fostering an environment that encourages adaptation as people engage their local surroundings and a changing world.

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“Downtown Bayou” creates a residential neighborhood in downtown Houston with a distinct focus on connecting residents and workers to the Bayou and the rest of downtown.  A pedestrian corridor that cuts through the site links the Cultural District with new restaurants, offices, condos/apartments along with an open green space to the north of the railyard. A walkable scale is created by the introduction of new blocks, along with shifting Franklin Street north while maintaining its overall capacity.

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By maintaining the existing USPS office building and converting it into a center for artists, workshops, and incubator office space, “The Post” creates a cultural center within the site to compliment the adjacent cultural district.   It also introduces roof-top entertainment such as cinemas and eateries to capitalize on the site’s views of downtown and beyond.  Residential development maintains a human scale while providing housing for over 2500 people at all income levels. A portion of the USPS distribution facility is also retained, and will be renovated to house a small-vendor produce market.

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“Downtown Bayou” creates a residential neighborhood in downtown Houston with a distinct focus on connecting residents and workers to the Bayou and the rest of downtown.  A pedestrian corridor that cuts through the site links the Cultural District with new restaurants, offices, condos/apartments along with an open green space to the north of the railyard. A walkable scale is created by the introduction of new blocks, along with shifting Franklin Street north while maintaining its overall capacity.

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The Hill at Houston envisions a new livable downtown district with connections to the adjacent cultural and historic districts, the University of Houston Downtown, and the Buffalo Bayou through a newly organized street grid and the development of a multimodal transit station. The Houston Highline acts as a pedestrian gateway that connects downtown to the heart of the Hill, linking Houston’s cultural and historic districts with this live- work-play community. The creation of diverse housing stock and continuous integrated green space connect to a variety of amenities while providing ecological habitat. Buildings gradually decrease in height towards the bayou, giving the project a distinctive architectural identity that maximizes views of the bayou and downtown while providing residents with comfortable living through advanced passive energy systems.  The Hill at Houston — where neighborhood comforts meet downtown connections.

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Health Oriented Urbanism in South-East Seattle, (H.O.U.S.E.S.) explores a sustainable approach to urbanism while effectively taking advantage of the site’s many opportunities.  H.O.U.S.E.S. embodies four major aspects of sustainability: community health, economic health, environmental health, and individual health.

• Community health is promoted through social integration of diverse communities through the community center, community gardens, local small businesses, and farmers / crafts market.
• Economic health is accomplished through integrating different transportation systems and land uses, promoting diverse housing types, and reconfiguring existing big box retails.
• Environmental health is achieved by introducing green infrastructure and adding sustainable systems at the district and the building level to close environmental loops of energy, food and waste on site.
• Individual health is enhanced by walkability, bikeability and by greening the environment. Extensive traffic calming improves pedestrian safety.

This design is largely a reflection of rethinking contemporary urbanism to create more sustainable neighborhoods and livable, resilient cities.

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Rainier Boulevard is the future of concentrated growth in Seattle.  As an urban village, Rainier Boulevard provides a pedestrian-friendly balance of housing and employment density around the Mt. Baker light-rail station.  Rainier Boulevard further capitalizes on regional transit investments by transforming a product of sprawl into a multi-modal and authentic Seattle destination.  In response to existing site conditions, Rainier Boulevard focuses on five development objectives:  integrate the pedestrian realm while balancing traffic needs, utilize phased placemaking strategies to deliver financial performance, create a community towncenter worthy of regional attraction, strengthen existing park connections showcasing the mature street tree canopy, and celebrate cultural diversity while empowering local entrepreneurs.  Together, these objectives provide the framework for establishing the character of this neighborhood redevelopment and its connection to greater Seattle.

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Rainier Valley Exchange is an urban village focused on providing accessibility to multi-modal transit, innovative business opportunities, and unique, local culture. Its pedestrian and bicycle network emphasize connections to surrounding neighborhoods as well as existing light rail and bus infrastructure, providing access to the entire Seattle Metropolitan region. It also encourages innovation and entrepreneurship through affordable retail / office space and business support services, while building on existing local small businesses. Finally, it creates a vibrant community designed for personal interaction and cultural exchange on the street, in the park, at the grocery store as well as local restaurants and cafés. The design for “Rainier Valley Exchange” encourages the growth of unique local and cultural elements and connects the neighborhood to the surrounding region and global marketplace.

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Pilot Point fosters new initiatives and promotes entrepreneurship and supports innovation.  This development uses the city’s growing public transit system and its connection to greater Seattle as a catalyst for sustainable growth. The UW Campus Plaza, Husky Square, houses a Farmer’s Market and Greenhouse to allow local P-Patch gardeners to sell homegrown produce. Pilot Point enhances the neighborhood by providing cultural amenities, like the International Cinema with an outdoor amphitheater in Pilot Park.  The Point becomes a hub for community activities providing the tools for its residents and visitors to become successful entrepreneurs as with Seattleite tradition. Transformation continues along Rainier Avenue with traffic calming strategies such as larger sidewalks, bike lanes and street front retail. SoSea Trail, a half-mile linear park, connects Pilot Point into Seattle’s existing park system. Rooted locally, yet reaching globally, Pilot Point energizes the region’s potential and sparks sustainable development throughout the Rainier Valley.

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Family Oriented Development presents a catalytic strategy to anchor a resilient, invested, multi-generational community in San Diego’s East Village. This development will attract diverse family types representing a range of ages, needs, and resources through attention to three critical factors: time, relationships, and upward mobility. The design affords quality use of time through convenient access to amenities such as retail, transit, the Park-to-Bay urban greenway, the Village Green, neighborhood schools, and the vibrant culture of downtown. Social nodes, including the Thought Box, Village Green, and the walkable street system promote inclusive extended family relationships among individuals, businesses, and institutions. An accessible framework of life-long learning, entrepreneurial development, and an affordable lifestyle offers opportunities for upward mobility. Family Oriented Development uses these building blocks to construct a self-organizing system: a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable network that will evolve and spread throughout downtown San Diego.

Learn more about Family Oriented Development at East Village Park

East Village is San Diego’s new food arts district. Here, a new culinary arts academy graduates over 1,000 chefs annually. The test kitchen serves ceviches and enchiladas.  Outside the culinary museum, a weekly farmer’s market sells produce from local farms. At the public market hall, purveyors sell artisan foods, cookware, and spices. Sewing together all these amenities is the district’s central promenade, Eat Street. It is a paseo for strolling, al fresco dining, and people-watching. Restaurants spill into the street, blurring the line between interior and exterior. A canopy of lights zigzags from rooftop to rooftop, and wafting aromas enrich the atmosphere. East Village is a hub of fresh food and fresh ideas. Artists innovate in the district’s 600,000 square feet of affordable flex space, and over 22,000 students attend classes at one of the three educational institutions in the district. East Village life is La Moda Fresca.

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The East Village holds tremendous potential to expand San Diego’s inventory of great places, beginning with “The Garden District” which transforms its northeast quarter. The East Village Green is relocated and enlarged, becoming an iconic downtown amenity and the heart of the “green link” connecting Balboa Park to the waterfront of “America’s Finest City.” A new transit stop improves circulation between existing neighborhood assets such as City College and Broadway with Albertson’s on G Street. Sustainable concepts are emphasized, including green roofs, cisterns, and grassy freeway caps that reach adjacent communities. New office, retail, and entertainment venues bring back economic vitality on primary through-streets, while multiple residential types encourage social diversity through an affordable housing ratio well above requirements. This plan is easily extended to the rest of East Village, completing the transformation of this critical neighborhood for the health and benefit of all San Diego.

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“Celebration of Art” proposes an art-centric, multi-generational, European-scaled, sustainable development on the site of a former warehouse district. The project seeks to create over 1,500 jobs while attracting people to live, shop, and work in East Village.  The design is unified by a central park and subdivided by four art-themed sub districts, each with its own art-themed pocket par.

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Planning for Denver’s future, Panorama Station takes advantage of the site’s greatest assets while improving the lifestyle for future residents and existing neighbors. It provides view-oriented public spaces that maximize the visibility of the mountain landscape to the west and supports a fifteen-minute car-free lifestyle by enabling residents to access all daily amenities and services within a fifteen-minute travel time. Panorama Station creates a strong sense of place by establishing a vital urban center along Dakota Street, anchored by the light rail station and new streetcar. It creatively integrates big box retail into the medium-density urban environment and anticipates flexible future uses for the large retail spaces. The development is sensitive to the arid climate and integrates water conserving landscapes by choosing native plants and introducing rainwater retention infrastructure. Lastly, using progressive financing techniques, it creates a strong public-private partnership with the support of the city and surrounding neighborhoods.

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Alameda Market is a progressive urban center that finds itself at home in Denver, Colorado. The plan looks to the future while respecting the past, incorporating the urban grid from surrounding neighborhoods and building on the strengths of Denver’s light-rail, bus, and bike routes. Pedestrian-oriented urbanism feeds Denver’s outdoor culture providing space for sidewalk cafes and curbside markets. Open spaces are carefully placed relative to one another while offering different venues for a variety of recreational activities. The surrounding human-scaled architecture pays homage to the well-detailed warehouses of downtown Denver. Sustainability goals of tomorrow are achieved today at Alameda Market by producing 20 percent of energy on site, accommodating on-site food production and water reuse and anticipating the conversion of large retailers into smaller commerce in intimate retail courtyards. The Alameda Market vision creates an ecologically responsible urban center that provides a sense of place, history, and community.

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The Denver Design District touch proposal converges culture, enterprise, and lifestyle to create a verdant, livable, community-focused urban atmosphere. The district’s current big-box development, which serves the prototypical car-centric suburban model, is transformed into one of Denver’s most distinctive neighborhoods. touch establishes new methods of interaction and collaboration through multi-modal transit connections, vertical integration, increased density, and open space to create an engaged and vibrant lifestyle. Linked through Alameda Station and unified by connective landscape, the district serves the broader Denver region as a destination for events, leisure, and gathering. The vision utilizes its local and regional resources in response to a new generation that demands unprecedented integration of activity, technology, culture, diversity, and choice. Adaptive, connective and livable, touch creates an enduring urban community for the 21st century and beyond.

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Our design leverages the existing demographic trends and natural resources of Denver while combating the negative effects of sprawl and environmental degradation by employing the following six design strategies: DENSITY—Increase density; integrate transit, mix of uses; ENERGY—Improve efficiency and provide clean sources of power; EDUCATION—Foster innovation and education through construction of institute and schools; REUSE—Reuse existing structures and building materials; LIFESTYLE—Leverage and reinforce Denver’s high quality of life; PUBLIC SPACES—Create active streetscapes and green public spaces. These strategies are exhibited on the following areas of the site: Alameda Station—Light rail is the future of transportation, replacing the car is essential; Las Ramblas District—Mix of uses helps create a sense of community; Energy Institute/School Joint Venture—Alternative energy and education provide a long-term economic competitive advantage to the site

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Belleview Place invites a rethinking of the definition of urban spaces in Dallas. The plan harnesses Cedars’ assets to bridge neighborhoods divided by physical, economic and cultural differences by connecting open space, transit and institutional resources. These strategies position Belleview Place as a destination for everyone—from professionals seeking downtown living to working-class families seeking convenience and comfort. This planned-unit development orients Cedars along mass transit and creates vibrant, safe and walkable corridors using urban design guidelines centered on streets as an integral part of the public realm. Civic amenities and commercial installations along these corridors strengthen connections between area neighborhoods by providing equitable standards of social and physical infrastructure for all. The development strategy identifies key nodes for dense commercial growth based on a framework of phased infrastructure, public investment, leveraging private funding, and land development to increase land values and attract a range of developers.

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“Interchange” turns the word’s meaning from its car-centric, space-wasting, and neighborhood-dividing connotations to a holistic vision of cultural, economic, and ecological living and working environment. The intersecting axes of the DART line and major streets connecting downtown and the Cedars activate a new kind of interchange in which neighborhood-scale parks and pathways and commercial and residential components attract residents who value accessibility to transit and a sustainable urban lifestyle.
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“Cedars: Reconnect, Revitalize” stitches together social, physical and economic connections from an earlier era. Medium and low-rise uses traverse the spine connecting the Cedars DART stop with Old City Park. A diverse mix of families, artists, and professionals forms the core of a neighborhood already taking root. Central to the development theme is the proposed Natural Connections network of multi-modal and sustainable, “complete streets,” greenways, and open space.

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“Redefining the Vista” builds on current cultural and institutional assets of the Cedars with new vistas and view corridors of downtown Dallas and the Trinity River corridor. A reorientation of streets around a new central plaza–anchored by a gateway, a public fountain, and a mix of housing and retail–creates a hub for employment, entertainment, artistry, and recreation and meets the region’s unfulfilled demand for an affordable, easy-going neighborhood integrating both market-rate and affordable housing.

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The title refers to the metamorphic process of creating new landscapes by forming connections between disparate fragments of Los Angeles’ neighborhoods. The urban plan for East First Street encourages a flow of green spaces towards a new park decked over the railyards along the west side of the river, and connecting to the greenway along the east side of the river. This urban-scale swath of green space continues into the residential neighborhoods in Boyle Heights, up to Mariachi Plaza, which is redeveloped with rental and ownership units, both market-rate and affordable, above neighborhood-scale retail spaces.

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A strong phasing strategy introduces urban connections between the neighborhoods north and south of East First Street, reinforcing First Street as a corridor and a linear locus of commercial activity. Likewise, the river undergoes revitalization in stages that bring in natural landscape, public art, and new development. The Mariachi Plaza parcels are redeveloped as a mixed-use district of ground-floor retail with commercial offices and 1,124 units of market-rate and affordable housing at build-out.

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This scheme turns the physical and economic divide that is now the river into a shared amenity that brings together Downtown and Boyle Heights. Higher-density residential towers on the downtown side of First Street and redevelopment on both sides of the river take advantage of the value created by the river revitalization. The Mariachi Plaza development parcels become an employment generator as a center for the training of hospital workers at the nearby medical complexes at USC and White Memorial.

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This scheme uses the revitalized river and new transit links to “reconnect the urban islands” that make up Los Angeles. Development around transit, along First Street, reconnects Downtown and Boyle Heights with the sprawling Los Angeles archipelago. The riverway, with open spaces extending into surrounding neighborhoods and a greened-in railyards, forms a common spine. At the Mariachi Plaza development zone, a neighborhood retail at grade and a high concentration of affordable and workforce housing above is proposed as a model development around transit.

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“Bridging Innovation at Grand Crossing” leverages the east-west intracity connections made possible by Chouteau Greenway by creating a north-south “academic spine” along Grand Boulevard bridge. An urban northern edge and a biotech-oriented southern edge unites the Saint Louis University campus around a mixed-use node where academics, biotechnology, transit, recreation, commercial, and residential activities can concentrate.

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Team 2105’s proposal introduces a skywalk system that connects Saint Louis University’s Frost campus with its health sciences center. The skywalk allows pedestrians to move from one end of the university campus to the other without interfering with vehicular and freight traffic, and draws student activities into the project area, where they can be shared by the academic and medical communities. At the landscape level, environmental strategies create open and green spaces, and site edges blend discreetly into the surrounding community.

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“Weave” proposes an urban prototype for St. Louis that rejects the creation of a specific-use redevelopment district and instead introduces explicit north-south connections throughout the site that weaves it into the communities to its north and south. While the Greenway is the major east-west cross-weave, smaller strips of green space weave through the site, eventually connecting with the Greenway. Reinforcing the vision of a community developed around transit and other urban amenities is a magnet school in close proximity to SLU and the Armory, redeveloped as a performing arts center.

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“Aurora” creates a biotech research, development, and entrepreneurial center that represents Saint Louis University’s interface with the local biotech industry. It accepts the commercial corridors of Grand Boulevard, Chouteau Avenue, and Forest Park Boulevard, fills the interior of the blocks with appropriate uses, and establishes a symbiotic relationship with the Greenway.

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“Emergence Magna” connects a revitalized Main Street with the greater Salt Lake region by extending a light rail line through the length of the Magna site and establishing nodes along the connector where development can take place. The master plan, with its mix of uses and densities, presents a plausible scenario for future development with new, rational infrastructure that will catalyze “emergence” opportunities.

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Building community, enhancing culture, and implementing conservation techniques will strengthen Magna’s unique identity while simultaneously achieving a regional significance. Located on Salt Lake City’s urban fringe, this former mining town has the potential to become a vital cultural center for surrounding communities on the West Bench as well as a new destination for the Salt Lake region. A systematic approach will stimulate intelligent population growth by re-establishing an economic and cultural base along the historic main street. Growth will be supported by a matrix of increased residential density and diversity, open space networks, symbiosis with an integrated ecosystem, and strategic economic growth along diversified transportation arteries. The initial strengthening of Magna’s core lays the foundation for future expansion, preparing the Township to welcome and accommodate regional commercial, educational. and residential growth without compromising local identity. A reintegrated Magna will emerge as a sustainable urban heart for the West Bench.

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The landscape of suburban sprawl complicates the task of place-making and poses significant social and environmental risks. Seeden sets forth a new prototype for regional development and embraces the contemporary mandate to re-establish a relationship between people and place. It confronts market, social, and infrastructural elements that typically undo notions of place and, at every scale, turns them into opportunities to engage in place-making. While New Urbanism has also confronted the conceptual problems of sprawl head on, it has at times failed to integrate into the surrounding fabric and has rarely propagated beyond its own boundaries. Seeden attempts both to anticipate regional growth and to “seed” likeminded development. Among its missions are to dismantle traditional dichotomies between big box and main streets; between greenfield development and ecological sustainability; and between urban connectivity and suburban insulation.

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The Tail’s End master plan establishes a regional scale open space framework. This framework capitalizes on existing site potentials, treats water as an honored resource, redefines infrastructure to generate investor benefits, and redistributes ecological resources within the region at large. Four locations serve as catalysts to initiate the balance of programs that structure phased development at Tail’s End. Each capitalizes on specific ecological, commercial, and educational networks found in the Salt Lake City region. The “Open Exchange” parkland network grounds the development’s social, ecological, and economic sustainability. The siting of civic institutions takes advantage of neighborhood parks; diverse housing offerings also array around these social spaces. Plantings, solar panels, and water-capture infrastructures built into each parkland capture renewable energy resources. By maximizing investments and reducing long-term residential costs, the “Open Exchange” gives Tail’s End a clear identity, and positions it as financially conservative and ecologically innovative.

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Arizona State University’s team proposed a “symbiotic network” among three apexes that the team identified as having lifestyle affinities: a North Shore event anchor at PNC Park and Heinz Field, downtown’s cultural district anchor, and a new anchor in the Strip District that provides a center for popular entertainment and nightlife. The jury singled out this entry for having a realistic development proposal, with an anchor centered on a waterfront plaza and a retail edge along Smallman Street that ties together the commercial and office spaces to the west with the residential uses to the east.

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This proposal addressed the city-wide issue of job loss and population decline by trying to attract back young skilled talent with a vibrant civic life and diverse urban activity. The proposal’s first phase prioritized several development principles, including the establishment of public-private partnerships; redefining the river’s edge; sustainable building; and amenities to celebrate the district’s character.

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Harvard University’s team was one of many that proposed to knit together the various uses that surround the site by extending their characteristics into the site. Along the Allegheny, riverfront connections are strengthened; at the western, Convention Center end, Pittsburgh’s cultural district extends into the site; along Smallman Street, the Strip District’s existing fabric expands into the site; and at the eastern end, the team proposes to initiate housing to create a higher-end residential district along the river. The jury believed this proposal to be believable and achievable, with strong urban design ideas supported by development documentation.

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Stanford University’s team (two members of which are graduate students at the University of California-Berkeley) builds upon the site’s proximity to Pittsburgh’s traditional transportation centers. The team’s proposal organizes the disparate transportation networks on the site and creates a new destination for locals and tourists. By introducing a new pedestrian bridge across the Allegheny, and creating pedestrian and view corridors from the Strip District across to the North Shore, this proposal encourages use of the site as a hub of activity that brings in users and reinforces the character of the Strip District.

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“City Beautiful and City Real” extends the neoclassical “City Beautiful” of Washington’s monumental core into the South Capitol study area, where it collides with the real city. This collision is marked by the intersection of the monumental South Capitol Street and the “real” commercial thoroughfare of the neighborhood, M Street, which becomes a “fulcrum,” around which a transit-oriented, mixed use neighborhood can develop, serving a live-work community of a “creative class” of residents.

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AnaCap—a new name and a new image for this historic community between the Anacostia River and the Capitol—“reknits the fragmented elements” that has broken the links between and among the city and neighborhoods surrounding the study area. Building on the strengths of its location and local and national identity, AnaCap will provide a web of public spaces along the South Capitol Street axis, around which will be organized diverse neighborhoods.

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Team 1001 reinterpreted the grandeur of L’Enfant’s Baroque boulevard as a twenty-first century urban promenade that retains its formality and intersperses it with enlivened streets full of “hidden courtyards and surprises.” As South Capitol Street extends towards the river, its character transitions from civic to live-work to natural.

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The “X Concept” is a reinterpretation of L’Enfant’s juxtaposition of diagonals over an urban grid. An X-shaped intersection marks M and South Capitol streets, forming a landscaped park that reintegrates the neighborhoods of the quadrants of the study area. Development along the four axes emanating from this center will catalyze revitalization evenly across the entire South Capitol Street community.

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