Mueller is a 700-acre redevelopment of a former airport into a health-focused master-planned community just three miles from downtown Austin, Texas. By 2020, Mueller is projected to have over 5,700 single family and multifamily units, a quarter of which will be affordable for low-income families. The Catellus Development Corporation worked with master planners ROMA Design and McCann Adams Studio to promote community health and wellness, to increase pedestrian activity, to improve air quality, and to utilize low-emission building materials.
Mueller’s various facilities and amenities are designed around the principles of social interaction, open space preservation, and active lifestyles. Tree-lined sidewalks and protected bicycle lanes provide shade and connect to a comprehensive trail system, retail, and recreational parks to encourage walking and bicycling. To promote physical fitness, Mueller provides sports facilities, playgrounds, a stretching area, and outdoor showers. A six-acre orchard and community garden provides residents with a seasonal harvest. Residents have initiated over 40 different clubs and interest groups and over 70,000 people attend large scale community events annually. The developer has facilitated social interaction these interactions through a block party at move-in and through physical design, including front porches, stoops, gardens, and alleyways in residential areas.
In a city-state with packed landfills and a low recycling rate, the Hong Kong East Community Green Station is an attempt to rethink Hong Kong’s approach to waste. The project sits on a 0.8-acre site beneath an elevated expressway in Shau Kei Wan, a neighborhood on the east side of Hong Kong Island with a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Built with recycled and sustainable materials, the site includes recycling facilities as well as educational and community spaces that are meant to expose citizens to the importance of waste reduction.
King’s Cross Station is a historic train station, first built in 1852, that has been renovated, expanded, and modernized, and now serves as a new focal point for the city of London. In addition to the train station, the 4.5-hectare project includes office and retail space, as well as a soaring new interior public concourse and a new public square at the front of the station. King’s Cross Station is located at the heart of a major redevelopment district in London, aptly named King’s Cross.
Denver Union Station is a large-scale mixed-use development—including office, residential, retail, hotel, and transit uses—in downtown Denver. The project has been a transformative effort for downtown Denver and for the larger region. The redevelopment of Denver Union Station turned a vacant parcel of land and an underused old train station into a progressive urban redevelopment that is an exemplary model for cities and transit systems worldwide. The project has also established a new district and center of gravity within downtown Denver. The project involved a public/private partnership among private developers and various public agencies including city, county, state, and federal entities.
After the village of Orland Park, Illinois, invested $35 million in public infrastructure and land assembly, the real estate market collapsed and quashed anticipated development that would bring taxes to reimburse the village investment. When a new partner proposed a mixed-use project but could not obtain sufficient conventional financing, the village took the very risky step of providing a loan that completed the financial package. The village now has a viable center which achieved its initial goals and it has plans to repay the public investment.
Euclid Avenue in Cleveland has seen many lives, from a one-time “Millionaires’ Row” early in the 20th century to an underused industrial corridor lined with dilapidated buildings. Always a major artery in the region’s transportation network and lined with major regional institutions such as Cleveland State University and University Hospital, this historic main street was recently transformed by a $197 million investment in bus rapid transit (BRT) and special attention to the latest innovations in street design. Today, more than 89 development projects totaling roughly $4.7 billion of investment are completed or in progress along Euclid Avenue, as estimated by the regional transit authority.
Although some projects have been delayed by the recent nationwide downturn, overall the corridor has bucked national trends and as the economy comes back is now poised to again become one of the United States’ great urban boulevards. Cities around the country are now looking to Cleveland as a model for successful BRT thanks to the thoughtful and comprehensive public investment that has leveraged itself many times over in private sector and institutional dollars.
Storrs Center created a new, mixed-use downtown for the town of Mansfield, Connecticut, replacing a small shopping center adjacent to the University of Connecticut. Its 11 mixed-use buildings house 626 rental apartments and 139,707 square feet of retail and office; 42 for-sale townhouses and condominiums are also on the site. New retailers, such as a supermarket, restaurants, medical center, and bookstore, create an eclectic college-town atmosphere, while a half-acre town square and 20 acres of nature preserves provide places for gathering and recreation.
The project was initiated by a partnership between the town, the university, and local business leaders. Master developer LeylandAlliance, together with apartment developer Education Realty Trust (EdR), built the $169 million retail and residential development, while the town used over $25 million in grants for on-site infrastructure and planning. Storrs Center was a finalist for the ULI Global Awards for Excellence in 2015.
Because investing posed a high risk for private developers in this Pittsburgh neighborhood, local government played a pivotal role in early revitalization efforts. Located near downtown, East Liberty borders both a more affluent community and a lower-income community. A key first project, a home-improvement center brought residents together and kicked off two decades of revitalization. As the neighborhood transformed, perceptions of the market changed, and private developers gained the confidence to invest more heavily. The proportion of government subsidies declined, housing values rose dramatically, and crime fell by half.
In the 1990s, analysts for Aeropuerto Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA), the Spanish airport authority, decided that southern Europe needed a hub airport, one that would enable airlines to offer connections among continental and transatlantic flights. The idea was to develop a facility that would become a new connecting point between the Americas and Europe, one that could accommodate between 65 million and 70 million passengers annually. The new Terminal 4 at the Madrid-Barajas International Airport, completed and opened in February 2006, makes Madrid-Barajas the second-largest airport in Europe and the tenth largest in the world.
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.
