Buffalo Bayou Park is a 160-acre linear park stretching for 2.3 miles west of downtown Houston, along the region’s primary river. A $58 million capital campaign transformed the park from a neglected drainage ditch into a citywide showpiece. Its ten acres of trails wind past seven major public art installations, three gardens of native flora, and over four pedestrian bridges; two festival lawns, a dog park, a skate park, a nature play area, a restaurant, and an art exhibit hall draw visitors from afar. Structures were carefully sited above the path of potential floods, while park elements within the valley were designed and built to be submerged during future floods—requiring cleanup, rather than reconstruction, after the inevitable floods.
The nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership orchestrated a joint effort between public sector partners and private donors: private donors funded the park, in tandem with public sector improvements to the river channel and adjacent streets, and with a plan for ongoing maintenance. The park’s completion was a milestone that launched a broader effort to reimagine the possibilities of streams across the region.
Blue Dot Place, the first multi-unit residential building constructed in downtown Colorado Springs since 1960, includes 33 one- and two-bedroom apartments above retail space that houses a local coffee shop and entrepreneurial center.
Amsterdam has long been recognized as one of the world’s great bicycling cities, and for good reason—the city is home to more bikes than people and a higher percentage of trips within the city are made by bike than by car. While Amsterdam residents have long had a history of cycling to meet their daily needs, a cultural preference for two-wheeled transportation alone does not explain why the city so vastly outpaces its peers in nearly every measure of bicycle use. Instead, over the past half-century, local advocates, elected officials, and other stakeholders have worked to reverse the city’s post–World War II embrace of the automobile by crafting bike-friendly policies and directing funding toward infrastructure that makes meeting one’s daily transportation needs by bike a safe, convenient, and even obvious choice.
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.
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.
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.
Jackson Walk is the redevelopment of a 17-acre remediated brownfield site into a multiuse neighborhood featuring a wellness center, a medical clinic, 149 market-rate apartments, 32 affordable and market-rate single-family homes, and over 30 new businesses in downtown Jackson, Tennessee. Developer Healthy Community LLC—a partnership between Crocker Construction Company, HCB Development, and Henry Turley Company—along with architecture firm Looney Ricks Kiss, joined the city’s “JumpStart Jackson” coalition to tackle childhood and adult obesity rates, which once ranked as the second-highest in the nation.
The anchor of Jackson Walk is the LIFT (Living in a Fit Tennessee) wellness center, which offers preventative, primary, and rehabilitative care, a sugar-free café, a recreational gym, community outreach events, and educational programs for children and seniors. Activity throughout the day from the LIFT facility benefits the restaurants and retailers in Jackson Walk. Parking was divided into smaller segments and shared by commercial developments to provide a parklike ambience on site, interspersed with walking and bicycling trails with outdoor exercise stations. New trees, landscaping, sidewalks, and streetlights surround Central Creek, a former concrete-lined drainage ditch, throughout the property. Downtown and midtown amenities, including a farmers’ market, a university, a dog park, an outdoor amphitheater, an entertainment district, and the city’s largest employers, are all accessible by foot or by bike.
Jackson Walk was recognized for its commitment to sustainability and health by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s National Award for Smart Growth Achievement in 2015.
Selandra Rise is a 284-acre master-planned community focused on providing diverse and affordable options for housing, employment, health, and well-being. Australia’s largest real estate developer, Stockland, partnered with the Planning Institute of Australia to create a community of 1,300 homes at buildout using sustainable building materials.
The local government, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, and the Growth Areas Authority partnered with Stockland to provide services to promote health, wellness, and active lifestyles. All homes are within a quarter-mile walk of parkland, including the Clyde Creek trail, small pocket parks, playgrounds, a community garden, and an outdoor fitness station. Selandra Rise developed a comprehensive network of permeable, walkable, and tree-lined sidewalks and paths. Throughout this community, wayfinding signs indicate the time it would take to walk or bike to various destinations. Bicycle lanes are separated from car traffic and walking paths lead to recreational areas. Selandra Community Place organizes twenty to thirty free programs per month focused on health, wellness and social engagement.
The master-planned community Rancho Sahuarita, located near Tucson, Arizona, and developed and owned by Sharpe & Associates, was designed with healthy living at the forefront.
The lake’s clubhouse provides residents with numerous opportunities for physical activity, including a 6,000-square-foot fitness center, dance and aerobic studios, splash park, and lap pool. The clubhouse also features an outdoor “adventure park” with tennis and basketball courts, a mini golf green, and a children’s playground. Homeowners association dues cover more than 50 different fitness classes offered in the clubhouse, including tennis, basketball, ballet, karate, and yoga.
An extensive network of recreational amenities, such as a ten-acre lake with an adjacent park and walkable promenade, encourage physical activity. The development maintains two large parks complete with pools, as well as smaller parks throughout the grounds with volleyball courts and play equipment for children. Forty miles of paved walking paths and bicycle trails, including a kid-friendly safari trail with life-size bronze animals, connect residents throughout the community.
Rancho Sahuarita has partnered with Carondelet Health Network to maintain an on-site primary and urgent care facility, as well as to offer programming that encourages physical activity and a healthy lifestyle, like a children’s summer camp and a health and wellness lecture series.
