Bridgeland is an 11,400-acre master-planned community northwest of Houston, Texas, which will be home to 65,000 residents when complete in 2037. Like the Woodlands, its predecessor, the Bridgeland site plan centers on scenic lakes that improve water quality, irrigate during droughts, and draw residents to common areas for recreation. These lakes form a stormwater system that exceeds local design requirements, and which has managed storm events much larger than those anticipated.
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.
Prospect Plaza is a mixed-use affordable housing redevelopment project spread over five buildings and three blocks in Brooklyn’s Ocean Hill–Brownsville neighborhood. The $200 million project is replacing a former New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complex with a mix of nearly 400 public housing and affordable rental apartments, retail space, and community and recreational facilities designed to support resident health in a rapidly developing area with significant public health challenges.
Red Oak Park is an urban infill residential community in Boulder, Colorado, that concentrates on making affordable housing available by rehabilitating a deteriorated mobile home park. The 59 single-family detached, duplex, and triplex units on a 3.85 acre (1.6 ha) site are permanently affordable and primarily rented to the former mobile home park residents. The project includes 21 single-family detached units and 38 duplex and triplex units. Construction began in June 2010 and the community was completed in August 2011.
Using a creative financing structure, the new homes were built sustainably to house residents earning between 30-50% of the area median income. The development incorporates sustainable and energy-efficient principles with socially conscious and community-oriented housing.
The mixed-use Darling Quarter development in Sydney, Australia, is a 3.7 acre (1.5 ha) office/retail/entertainment center and tourist destination. This place-making project is located in Darling Harbour, which is one of Australia’s most-visited destinations, and it abuts Sydney’s central business district. It is centered around 69,965 square feet (6,500 m2) of open space and includes 32,292 square feet (3,000 m2) of retail space and 613,543 square feet (57,000 m2) of office space. Prior to this development by Lend Lease, the site had housed an unsuccessful entertainment center that was not well integrated into its urban and waterfront surroundings.