The nearly three-mile-long Second Street corridor, which extends from the center of downtown Rochester to West Circle Drive, is the economic hub of the city, with nearly half of all the city’s jobs within walking distance, including the prestigious Mayo Health Clinic. Before the completion of a redevelopment project along Second Street in 2015, the economic energy stopped at the U.S. Highway 52 bridge. West of the bridge, Second Street consisted of seven lanes (including two parking lanes and a center turn lane), and 22,000 high-speed vehicles per day traveled it in peak locations. The way the corridor was designed limited pedestrian and bicycle mobility and contributed to underutilized on-street parking (because of the risks associated with parking adjacent to high-speed vehicles).
To reduce the area’s automobile-centric nature and to improve its economic trajectory, the city and area stakeholders completed an inclusive redevelopment project in 2015. That project revitalized about 1.5 miles of Second Street between U.S. Highway 52 and West Circle Drive. Later rebranded as the Uptown District, the area has since assumed a new identity as a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood that is primed for economic growth.
Streets have played a major role in the development of College Park, a neighborhood adjacent to downtown Orlando, Florida. The neighborhood’s Princeton, Harvard, and Yale streets influenced the naming of the city’s first subdivision and eventually the naming of the neighborhood.
Beginning in 1999, local stakeholders gave College Park a new identity by transforming Edgewater Drive, its main street. The four-lane road was extremely unsafe; it carried more than 20,000 speeding motorists per day, and it experienced crashes nearly every three days and injuries every nine days. Because the road also contained limited space for sidewalks, bike lanes, and streetscape, the city of Orlando implemented a lane reduction—or “road diet”—to regain space for pedestrians and bicyclists. Since the project’s implementation, Edgewater Drive has become a noticeably healthier and safer street. Traffic speeds and the number of crashes have been reduced, and both the volume and satisfaction of pedestrians and bicyclists have increased.
The Short North Arts District, which is centered on High Street, consists of 14 blocks north of downtown Columbus just south of the Ohio State University campus. Once home to neglected buildings, boarded-up windows, and few businesses—and visited frequently by the police—the area once known as the “Near Northside” became known as “Short North” after the Columbus police gave the area that moniker for being just short of the northern boundary of the downtown precinct. Short North underwent a makeover when local artists, historic preservationists, and small businesses began to transform the area into an arts district in the 1980s.
As programming and an organizational structure have come together, the Short North Arts District’s community health and social connectedness have greatly improved. Today, the Gallery Hop includes restaurants, galleries, and shops, and it attracts more than 25,000 attendees a year. More than 30,000 people participate in HighBall, an estimated 80,000 attend the Community Festival, about 500,000 spectators watch the Pride Parade, and the Doo Dah Parade has become locally renowned. Through the SID, Columbus’s tradition of illuminated arches was restored with the installation of 17 steel arches that create an identity for the district.
Euclid Avenue in Cleveland is celebrated in the city’s history as the turn-of-the-20th-century home to John D. Rockefeller and other prominent American businessmen. However, as development pressure and Cleveland’s population increased, Euclid Avenue’s luxury homes gave way to parking lots and shopping centers.
Beginning in the 1970s, local leaders set out to reestablish the corridor as a major transportation and economic development link by implementing a new transit system along the avenue. Seeking to connect the city’s two largest commercial districts—downtown and University Circle— Cleveland stakeholders voted to establish a bus rapid transit (BRT) system in 1998. Known as the HealthLine, the BRT has both improved connectivity and attracted new development to the area since its completion in 2008.
In strategic partnerships with state and federal agencies, local stakeholders—including the city of Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (Cleveland’s regional planning agency)—completed the project for a total investment cost of $200 million. The three goals guiding the development were to (1) improve service and efficiency for customers, (2) promote economic and community development along and adjacent to the line, and (3) improve quality of life for residents and visitors of the corridor and for area employees.
The first-tier suburban city of Shoreline, just north of Seattle, began its ambitious redevelopment of the heavily used Aurora Avenue North corridor just three years after the city’s incorporation in 1995. Before reconstruction, Aurora Avenue North was an automobile-centric highway featuring gas stations, shopping centers, convenience stores, adult clubs, and tobacco and alcohol stores. The four-lane road had an average of 40,000 to 45,000 vehicles and 7,000 bus riders per day and one of the highest crash rates in the state, at nearly one per day and one fatality per year.
The city knew that the redevelopment of Aurora would take a long-term commitment, and for the next 18 years, Shoreline worked to address land use and safety issues and to improve the conditions of the corridor and the surrounding neighborhoods. The three-mile project was completed without debt in 2016 using a mix of 21 different funding sources, including Shoreline’s capital improvement program as well as county, state, and federal funding.
Located outside Washington, D.C., in Arlington County, Virginia, Columbia Pike is a thoroughfare stretching more than three miles— from the edge of the Pentagon to the border of Fairfax County. The road was built in 1810 to connect Washington’s Long Bridge to the Little River Turnpike and the rest of Virginia. It evolved to become an automobile-oriented arterial—lined with fast-food restaurants, drive-through restaurants and banks, convenience stores, and strip malls—characterized by intense traffic congestion.
Arlington County sought to alleviate the congestion through the Columbia Pike Initiative, a corridor revitalization plan focused on the commercial corridors and adopted in 2002. The initiative was organized around an innovative Commercial Centers Form-Based Code (FBC) and supportive government-led programs, including a partnership with D.C.’s Metrobus. In 2008, the Arlington County Board issued a charge to begin work on Phase II of the Columbia Pike Initiative, which focused on multifamily residential areas located between the commercial centers. Phase II culminated in the adoption of the Neighborhoods Area Plan in 2012, which outlined the goals and tools that could be used to create the transportation, form, and housing vision for the multifamily areas. In 2013, the Columbia Pike Neighborhoods Form-Based Code (NFBC) was adopted in support of this vision. Together, the plans and the two codes work to create more urban parks and affordable housing, promote a safe biking and walking environment, and improve the corridor’s transit options.
Park 20|20, a 28-acre office park in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands, is designed with the health of the building occupants in mind. The project, developed by Delta Development Group and designed by William McDonough + Partners, features specially selected plants that are used to filter internal air through green walls that store carbon dioxide and produce fresh oxygen. Dust is minimized through a ductless floor system and through moss that acts as a natural filter.
Natural light is abundant throughout the office space, minimizing the need for much artificial light. LED lighting—the closest lighting to sunlight—was used to the extent possible, and an automated sun-shading system regulates the interior lighting based on sun and cloud cover. Each office space contains a window that can be opened for fresh air, and buildings are horseshoe shaped with large atriums that allow natural light from two sides. Natural views are provided through 22 acres of open space, which includes a central park that is visible from surrounding streets.
Grow Community, a master-planned development on Bainbridge Island, Washington, has social interaction at the core of its design and programming. Asani Development partnered with Davis Studio Architecture + Design LLC and Cutler Anderson Architects, to develop the project, which will include 132 residences, a community center, an early childhood center, and nearly two acres of community gardens and open space at buildout.
Their One Planet Living framework encourages “active, sociable, meaningful lives to promote good health and well-being” and promotes zero-net-carbon buildings, water use reduction, waste reduction, and the use of sustainable, healthy building materials. This framework guided the development of affordable housing for young families, people on fixed-incomes, and single households. Parking is located on the perimeter and underground to minimize impervious surfaces and to promote spontaneous encounters between residents using the interior footpaths. In place of a playground, natural play elements such as flat granite rocks were incorporated into walking paths. A solar-powered electric charging station is provided for an on-site carsharing program to reduce automobile dependency.
The Interlace is a 1,040-unit mixed use development inspired by the old villages of Singapore. Developer CapitaLand Singapore Limited partnered with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture to create eight courtyards, cascading rooftop gardens, and terraces within a “vertical village” to provide views, ventilation, and green spaces for all levels of the 24-story complex. The hexagonal arrangement of the development was designed and tested to provide passive cooling and shade in Singapore’s tropical climate.
Physical activity, social interaction, and aging-in-place is encouraged through a wide range of facilities. There is a series of play pools, an Olympic-sized lap pool, three tennis courts, and a fitness center. Bicycle storage and parking facilities are provided underground and vast green spaces, covering over 112 percent of the original property, are provided at ground level and above. Community gardens, playgrounds, barbeque pits, dog runs, and outdoor exercise equipment promote outdoor physical activity and social gatherings. A running track around the perimeter of the Interlace is so wide it doubles as access for fire and emergency response vehicles. The universal design features of the Interlace, including specialized aging-in-place units and wheelchair-friendly fitness centers, was recognized by Singapore’s Building Construction Authority with the Gold Plus (Design) award.
The Century Building is the first affordable housing development in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The building contains 28 workforce units, and 32 market-rate units, along with street-level commercial, retail, and amenity spaces. It was the first mixed-use residential development in Pittsburgh to achieve LEED Gold certification for green building practices, with recycling on every floor, Energy Star appliances, efficient light fixtures and windows, low-flow water fixtures, and dual flush toilets. The Century Building is the adaptive reuse of a historic 1907 office complex, developed by the TREK Development Group and designed by Koning Eizenberg Architects with Moshier Studios.
Asthma and allergy rates for residents have reportedly decreased, in part due to the property’s non-smoking policy, nontoxic building materials, open-loop geothermal system for consistent heating and cooling, recovery ventilation system for fresh air, and energy-wheel to manage heating and odors. A bright green bicycle mural on the building’s north wall welcomes city cyclists and calls attention to a collaboratively-financed secure Bicycle Commuter Center on site. The property also includes a fully-equipped fitness facility, a community room, and a green rooftop deck with views of downtown that serves as a gathering space for residents.
