Clark Dietz, Inc.’s Post

How do you create a unified master plan design navigating various property interests?🤔 At the heart of Orange County lies the Civic Center in Santa Ana, surrounded by a rich and diverse history. However, the Civic Center itself, with its mix of city, county, state, and federal properties, presents a unique challenge due to complex ownership arrangements. TCA was tasked with delineating a vision to leverage underutilized land and create a harmonized concept for the center of the Civic Center, resulting in a concept centered around a centralized plaza/park, serving as a focal point for all Civic Center uses. 🌳 🚴♀️ 🗺️ #masterplanning #design #concept

Digging into the details of DTR’s Activating Fayetteville Street Report: Ideas 6 - 8 🎇 Idea #6 | Add more housing on and around Fayetteville Street Strategic redevelopment on and near Fayetteville Street, encouraging mixed-use development, recruiting businesses that complement housing density, and addressing parking needs can bring a healthy mix of residents, workers, and visitors to support area businesses. Idea #7 | Use public space to support neighborhood livability Attractive, vibrant public spaces that serve the community needs will make downtown great. We’re exploring ways to use lighting, art, and creative wayfinding to add more life to downtown’s plazas and parks. Idea #8 | Reposition City Plaza as downtown’s front porch Rooting daily, year-round activation through select removal of a few streetscape items, re-tenanting of available commercial space, and programming at every scale can make City Plaza the heart of our city. Read the full report for all the details 👇 https://bit.ly/3vWpXpK Key: 🟨 = Existing housing

Happy Cities Are Redeveloping into Places for People At this year’s QuadState APA Conference in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I had the opportunity to engage with thought leaders and urban planners from across the region. Dr. Tristan Cleveland, an urban planner and research specialist for Happy Cities, led an insightful discussion on reshaping urban spaces to prioritize people over cars, promoting healthier, more sustainable, and more inclusive communities. A key takeaway from the session was that making car-dependent places more people-centered in design doesn’t always work. In fact, most of the time, it doesn’t increase land values or active transportation use, and it can reduce the financial outcomes of affordable housing investments. Even congestion reduction strategies may lower the GDP of the area. So, where should you focus your people-centered development efforts? The answer lies in where market trends are shifting. Retail purchasing patterns have changed, meaning fewer people shop at malls, and office space demand—particularly Class B office space—is declining. If the old development pattern is working, there’s no need to invest in transforming it. Instead, identify underutilized spaces and concentrate your efforts there. The best long-term activation strategy is to play small ball. Here’s how: 1. Activate and fund a dedicated organization to manage redevelopment efforts in the selected area. 2. Sustain the initiative with a consistent yearly budget to ensure long-term growth and stability. 3. Invest small amounts yearly to make gradual improvements. There’s no need to swing for the fences with a big project like a stadium. By taking this approach, communities can thoughtfully transform underutilized spaces into vibrant, people-centered places that reflect the needs of today’s changing market. #UrbanPlanning #PeopleFirst #QuadStateAPA #HappyCities #Fayetteville #SustainableCommunities #UrbanDesign #Infrastructure #ShockeyConsulting #planningmonth American Planning Association April Snay, AICP Grant Mayfield Cara Elbert Jeffrey Williams, AICP Grant L. Happycities

The recently unveiled "Downtown RISE: A 10-Year Vision" marks a pivotal moment for our city's future. This comprehensive plan, building on Mayor Scott's Strategic Action Plan, is a testament to collaborative leadership and forward-thinking urban development. Key highlights: • Partnership between Mayor Scott's Administration, Governor Moore's Administration, and Downtown Partnership of Baltimore • Focus on creating a more livable, pedestrian-friendly, and vibrant downtown • Emphasis on innovation and community engagement As part of this visionary initiative, We are thrilled to spotlight The Debug Club - a perfect embodiment of the plan's innovative spirit. This tech-focused "third space" is set to become a cornerstone of Baltimore's evolving urban landscape, fostering collaboration, creativity, and technological advancement. The Debug Club represents exactly what Downtown RISE envisions: a space where community, business, and innovation intersect. It's a catalyst for the kind of vibrant, diverse, and forward-thinking downtown Baltimore is poised to become. This synergy between city-wide planning and grassroots initiatives like The Debug Club showcases Baltimore's commitment to holistic urban revitalization. It's a prime example of how public vision and private enterprise can align to create transformative spaces. As we look towards the next decade of growth and development in Baltimore, initiatives like Downtown RISE and spaces like The Debug Club will play crucial roles in shaping our city's future. They're not just changing our skyline – they're redefining how we live, work, and innovate in urban spaces. What aspects of the Downtown RISE vision excite you most? How do you see spaces like The Debug Club contributing to Baltimore's renaissance? Let's continue this conversation and be part of shaping Baltimore's bright future! #DowntownRISE #BaltimoreInnovation #UrbanDevelopment #TechHub #CommunityGrowth

𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝘾𝘼𝙎𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝙐𝘿𝙔! The Presented Challenge ➡️ transform a suburban thoroughfare into an urban boulevard, making businesses more visible and accessible. The businesses along Livingston Road and MD Route 210 in Forest Heights’ commercial area include a vibrant mix of restaurants, shops and churches. The Greater Oxon Hill CDC envisioned creating a space that serves the community’s needs while reflecting and enhancing the vitality of the existing businesses. Their vision is part of a long-term plan to improve the public realm in the area to promote pedestrian safety, enhance area aesthetics, and support business growth. The goal is to transform the MD 210 corridor from a suburban thoroughfare to an urban boulevard, making businesses more visible and accessible. To create a more welcoming experience for business owners, residents, and visitors, Greater Oxon Hill CDC sought to create a facade improvement program to incentivize business owners to enhance their storefronts. #PlaceMatters Read more about how this suburban road was transformed into a thriving urban space: https://bit.ly/3PLnysj

I lead the visualization on this exciting design exercise. We only had about two weeks to complete this set, so efficiency was crucial. There were two workflows using Chaos Enscape in Rhino & Chaos Corona in 3DS Max. I have my own UX/UI gripes with Enscape, but being able to output section perspectives and a tilt shift focus with minimal hassle made all the difference for our deadline. The asset library allowed us to easily populate the scene with entourage and vegetation-- bringing in the movement and energy you'd expect in a New York City rendering. We skewed the Rhino '_ClippingPlane to lend the section perspective a more dynamic and stylized appearance. This also prevented us from having to manually trim geometry, as we wanted to cut the view near the elevators while still showing a generous amount of station platform. For the interior views, the camera was a lot closer to entourage figures and hard surfaces, so we set up those views in 3DS Max to flesh out the materials and emissive surfaces more. I find that adding Normal, Roughness, and Displacement maps to materials in Rhino (Enscape or otherwise) makes the program excruciatingly slow and buggy. Further, I find emissive materials and Rhino lights start to compete with each other when there are more than three in a single scene-- creating all sorts of strange artefacts...

What an incredible day at Bisnow’s Seattle State of the Market event last week, hosted at our Chapter Buildings in the heart of the University District! 🎉 The event featured engaging discussions from industry leaders on topics shaping Seattle’s future: 🔸 Seattle’s Next Chapter: Evolving market dynamics, downtown activations, back-to-office trends, and the city’s path to recovery. 🔸 Navigating Project Success Amidst Market Volatility: Strategies for managing entitlement, financing, construction trends, and site selection in a shifting landscape. 🔸 Transformative Developments: Challenges and opportunities in developing multifamily housing in Greater Seattle region. 🔸 Waterfront Revitalization: A deep dive into large civic projects like the upcoming Overlook Walk, and their role in cultivating culture and connectivity in the heart of Seattle. Midway through the event, our team hosted a tour of the Chapter Buildings, our latest mixed-use development. Shaping the future of work in Seattle, the two-tower project features Class-A office and life sciences spaces, a pedestrian green space, and rooftop decks with sweeping views of the city. With a focus on sustainability, community connectivity, and cutting-edge design, the Chapter Buildings are creating vibrant, modern work environments for the next generation of talent. The event closed with a lively rooftop happy hour at Building I, where connections continued amidst the Seattle skyline. 🌇 Thanks to all who attended and made this event a success! #SeattleRealEstate #ChapterBuildings #StateoftheMarket #Placemaking #MixedUseDevelopment #Bisnow #CommunityTransformation #BisnowSeattle #SeattleCRE #URGSEA #UniversityDistrict #LifeScienceRealEstate #LifeSciences #SeattleOffice

Rich with iconic architecture, history, and culture, the Gateway Mall in downtown #StLouis is one of America’s well-known public spaces. Yet despite its strengths, the Mall and its adjacent real estate are grappling with a host of challenges that mirror the issues in downtown cores across the country. Low economic activity and changing workplace habits, among other issues, have hindered the downtown’s ability to fully represent the diversity and richness of all that St. Louis has to offer. In response to these concerns, ULI’s Advisory Services program convened a group of real estate and land use experts to examine opportunities for reimagining the Gateway Mall and enhancing equitable growth throughout downtown. Collaborating with Greater St. Louis, Inc. and St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC), the panel analyzed policy, governance, and finance strategies for revitalizing the Mall and advancing economic opportunities for all St Louisans. To learn more about the recent work of ULI’s advisory services and how they impact cities and communities, click here: https://lnkd.in/eahsHwkh ULI St. Louis #Equitabledevelopment #DowntownRevitalization #UrbanRevitalization

Edge cities are suburban, decentralized clusters of commercial and residential development, often located on the outskirts of major metropolitan areas. They typically feature a mix of office buildings, retail centers, entertainment venues, and residential areas, functioning as self-sufficient urban centers. Edge cities emerged in response to suburbanization and the decentralization of economic activity away from traditional downtown areas. Examples include Tysons Corner in Virginia and Schaumburg in Illinois.The term "edge city" was coined by journalist Joel Garreau in his 1991 book titled "Edge City: Life on the New Frontier." An example of an edge city is Tysons Corner in Virginia, located outside of Washington, D.C. #EdgeCity #SuburbanDevelopment #Urbanization #UrbanBUZZ #HabituX #SHS #XIMUniversity

This morning's Seattle Times has a wonderful article by columnist Danny Westneat - in which he ponders Seattle's persistence to grow vertically. As a passionate urbanist, I spend as much time as possible walking cities, sans headphones or scrolling on my phone (that's a topic for another time!) Over these walks, it's become clear that the mega-block mixed-use devleopment is now ubiquitious to urban develpoment in most cities, which is ironic. We often opine how we want our cities to have the charm, heart, and soul of a West Village or a place rich with texture and stories like Philadelphia's Old City, yet when we create cities, we often find ourselves in the same old situation of proliforiating the MEGA over the micro. The (bad) sketch below shows an instance of this in Downtown Seattle. One side, exhibiting character, and texture - the adjoining new development, while with it's merits, standoff-ish and bordering on alien. There is great work to be done in making our cities interesting again! #urbandesign #urbanplanning #cities #publicrealm #streetscape #placemaking #seattle #theseattletimes