Knowledge Center
Planning, Design and Infrastructure
The urban place manager emphasizes efforts on the built environment because of the significant impacts they have on the quality of life and one’s authentic experience of a place. Every place is different; therefore, place management strategies should respond to a myriad of place-based identifiers including, the place’s specific scale, status, culture, climate, community vision, goals, and mission, keeping at the forefront considerations of sustainability and resilience.
Through numerous approaches, such as land and real estate development, zoning and land-use, streetscape improvements, transit-oriented development, multi-modal connections, sustainable infrastructure, attainable housing initiatives and historic preservation among others, place managers enhance the quality of life for all stakeholders of a place.
Biscayne Green – A Public Space Intervention Showcasing a Reimagined Biscayne Boulevard
The 2025 Downtown Miami Master Plan includes a goal to permanently transform Biscayne Boulevard into an urban boulevard that features a pedestrian promenade, emphasizes transit, and provides bicycle infrastructure. An objective of the Biscayne Green Temporary Intervention was to bring awareness of the barrier effect Biscayne Boulevard represents and to showcase how these spaces can be turned around into a local destination for green space, entertainment, and community.
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Downtown Development Framework
The Downtown Development Framework (DDF) is both a vision for downtown Oklahoma City and an innovative set of guidelines The DDF provides specific direction for development, by defining land uses and density and guiding the design of the public and private realms. Application of these development guidelines will help perpetuate downtown as a dense, vibrant, and sustainable core of commerce and culture in Oklahoma City.
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Envision Downtown: A Public/Private Partnership Advancing a Downtown Pittsburgh for All
While retaining its traditional role as the major jobs center for Western Pennsylvania, downtown Pittsburgh has grown in prominence as a cultural, dining, and entertainment destination and seen the rapid growth of its residential population. Despite this evolution, the physical infrastructure systems of downtown –roadway, parking, bus, and pedestrian– have not kept up with the increasing and changing demands placed on them.
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The MARTA Makeover Project
The Five Points MARTA Station Makeover project is an effort led by Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District to evaluate, design, and execute creative placemaking enhancements for Atlanta’s south-central business district. Because Five Points station is often a person’s entry point into Downtown Atlanta, this project offers an array of tactics to improve the experience and foster positive emotional responses to this public space for range of population segments.
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Downtown Design Standards Management
In 2001, Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. (DFWI) championed the creation of the Downtown Urban Guidelines. In 2016-2017, these guidelines were updated and strengthened by DFWI and City of Fort Worth and codified as the Downtown Urban Design Standards and Guidelines. DFWI led the effort with City staff and members by drafting the guidelines, facilitating discussion and ushering the program through City Council approval.
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Mode Split
Seattle is notorious for bad traffic. For the business community, this fact presented an obstacle for job growth. The Downtown Transportation Alliance formed Commute Seattle, a transportation management association incorporated within and managed by the Downtown Seattle Association, which collaborates with businesses to enable them to achieve community transportation objectives.
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More Awesome Now Laneway Project
The people of downtown Vancouver wanted a connected series of activated alleyways that are welcoming spaces with hidden gems to discover galleries, restaurants, and art walls. Between April 2016 and September 2016, DVBIA worked with the city to obtain permits, developed partner agreements, did construction, and launched the laneway. The More Awesome Now Laneway project was referenced in city council’s approach to creating a new places and spaces strategy for downtown.
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Scioto Greenways
Rarely do you get a chance to completely change the way people view a city, but the Scioto Greenways project did just that, both literally and figuratively. The revitalized Downtown Riverfront project, which was led by the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation (CDDC), not only provided a new view of the city, it also created a renewed sense of civic pride and excitement about the possibilities of the riverfront.
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34th Street Partnership Taxi Stand
The 34th Partnership (34SP), completed a year-long pilot project to improve their taxi stand on Seventh Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets. This stand is directly outside the main entrance of Penn Station, the continent’s busiest train terminus. The project had two goals, the first of which was to alleviate the chronic automobile congestion that had plagued the location for over a decade. The second was to efficiently direct people leaving Penn Station in need of a cab to the proper area.
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Downtown Topeka Public Space
The Kansas Avenue Project is a collaborative effort to address infrastructure replacement and topside enhancements responsive to improving the quality of place and encourage reinvestment and business activity in downtown Topeka. Public and private partnership raised $3.8 millon toward the creation of pocket parks, pavilions, fountains, arches, medallions, statues and state symbols that add to the beauty and appeal of downtown Topeka.
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