A bright white “side-scraper” stretches three-tenths of a mile along the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles, sandwiched between railroad yards and the river on one side and the city’s burgeoning loft district on the other. This structure is One Santa Fe, whose 510,000 square feet of space includes 438 apartments (88 of which are affordable units), as well as 78,620 square feet of retail and office space. The development, located on a narrow parking lot leased from a transit authority, was built using $165 million in public and private housing and commercial financing. Surrounding One Santa Fe’s internal pedestrian promenade is an eclectic mix of retailers, including both local convenience businesses and regional specialty shops that complement the neighborhood’s artistic and creative energy.
Completed in April 2006, the 400,000-square-foot (37,161-m2) Overture Center for the Arts project includes Overture Hall, a new world-class performance-arts facility; the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, an expanded art museum; and a variety of renovated performance and visual arts spaces. Set on an urban infill site just one block from the Wisconsin state capitol building, the center was made possible by a gift of $210 million—one of the largest gifts for an arts center in the United States—from W. Jerome Frautschi, a retired local businessman.
South Bank occupies a 47-hectare (116 acre), 1.2-kilometer-long (0.7 mi.) riverfront site, former home to World Expo 88, across the Brisbane River from Brisbane’s central business district. The mixed-use precinct features riverside parkland, cultural and educational facilities, 383 residences, 469 hotel rooms, 64,000 square meters (688,890 sq. ft.) of offices, and 43,200 square meters (465,000 sq. ft.) of retail, restaurant, and entertainment facilities. It attracts more than 11 million visitors a year.
A six-block urban mixed-use infill project anchored by restaurants, shops, for-sale and rental multifamily housing, parking, and two public buildings (a regional library and a business innovation and arts center), Rockville Town Square is the first phase in the development of a 60-acre (24-ha) town center master plan. Located in an inner-ring, outside-the-Beltway suburb of Washington, D.C, on the Red Line of the city’s Metrorail mass transit system, the pedestrian-oriented project features the two public buildings and four mid-rise residential structures atop ground-floor retail space, all surrounding a town square. The result of a public/private partnership among local developers, the city of Rockville, and Montgomery County, Rockville Town Square has created an urban live/work/play environment in an established suburban community.
