Sometimes a giant supermarket or big box store like Home Depot coming to your neighborhood is an inevitability, but The RISE in Vancouver, Canada proves it doesn’t have to be a one-story warehouse surrounded by parking. Instead, the parking is buried underground with over 90 condos and townhouses above. That’s right, when have you ever heard of residences above a big box?

No, this is certainly not an example of elegant, attractive design, but hey, baby steps. Developed by Grosvenor Canada,

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Would you live, work or play here? For many creatives, the answer would be yes, yes and yes.  What makes Portland’s Burnside Rocket the kind of building they want to see more of?

On the outside…
1. It’s expressive, authentic and unique. It isn’t called the Rocket for nothing. From the red exterior to the art panel shutters representing 24 emerging local artists, you won’t find anything like it… in the world, really.
2. It’s human-scaled. Framed construction vs high-rise concrete. People don’t

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The City of Lowell, Massachusetts is committed to growing its creative economy.

An historic downtown canal will be the centerpiece of the Hamilton Canal District, a new 15-acre, transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhood. Renovated historic mills will be integrated with one million s.f. of new construction to provide loft apartments and condominiums, shops, offices and public parks.  The development follows LEED ND (Neighborhood Development) principles, 30% of the buildings will be LEED

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It’s been well documented recently that suburbia is on the decline, and artists have been scooping up foreclosed homes in such neighborhoods, as covered in the Wall Street Journal’s Artists vs Blight. The good news is that progressive crowds are finally able to afford a home.  The bad news is that they’re in neighborhoods that are anything but progressive, and in fact creatively and economically isolated. What to do?

How about recycling the old and crowdsourcing a new neighborhood, by and for

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In the 1960s Holladay (within the Salt Lake City metropolitan area) made dubious history by being the first city in Utah to build a shopping mall. In 2008 it’s making history again, albeit a bit more noble, by transforming the mall into a walkable neighborhood.

Not only is the developer, General Growth Properties, redeveloping the 57-acre Cottonwood Mall site into a neighborhood, but as a focal point, gathering place and town center for the Holladay community of 14,000. To be known as

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What happens when your population doubles from 10,000 in 2000 to 20,000 today? In the case of Woodstock, Georgia, 30 miles north of Atlanta, the result will be a vibrant downtown rather than sprawl and congestion - thanks to investment in the city core.

They’re off to a good start, with their downtown plan winning a regional development of excellence award followed by a national award (CNU Charter Awards).  The plan consists of 340 residential units, 85,000 s.f. of retail and restaurant

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The development firm Urban Splash’s pioneering founder, Tom Bloxham was profiled in the previous entry, so now it’s fitting to present one of his signature projects that initiated the loft movement in Manchester, England. It sparked a transition from a built environment designed for the industrial economy, to a knowledge-based one.

Constructed before 1904 as a major department store (Affleck & Brown), the Smithfield Buildings, a group of nine buildings covering a full city block in

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Way back in November 2005 we published the projected vision of the new Del Mar Station Transit Village in Pasadena. Well, it’s time to show you the built result, and it’s inspiring to see it not only match the rendering, but look even better.

The 4.2 acre development hosts 346 apartments (though only 21 are affordable), 20,000 s.f. of retail, and 1200 underground parking spaces (ironically, more than three times the number of living units).  600 of those spaces are for the residents at 1.75

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It’s been kind of an oxymoron - attainably-priced urban lofts. With the help of the unrealized potential of downtown Kansas City and a full repertoire of government financing programs, creatives can get their hands on rather attractive lofts starting at $500/mo. for a 1BR/1BA to $620/mo. for a 2BR/2BA, at the Professional Building Lofts.

These aren’t run-down units, but newly renovated loft-style residences with built-in washer and dryer, stainless steel appliances and wood floors, plus a

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It’s a sign of the times - a parking garage in Los Angeles of all places is redesigned into a residential building?!

A historically significant 1920s two-story concrete garage with an Italianate facade was preserved (top image, right side) to become part of Trio, a 3.8 acre, 283,000 sf (14,600 sf retail), 304 apartment development in Pasadena’s Playhouse District. The developers, Shea Properties ensured that the new construction blended in with the surrounding neighborhood’s historic fabric,

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There are numerous cities and neighborhoods with a reputation for attracting creatives, but what about buildings in particular? There are places like the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA that provide studio and retail space for artists, but what about to live and play as well? That’s where Rick Destito and his Vibrant Syracuse Spaces in Syracuse comes in.

Rick’s a next generation developer who owns a five-story historic warehouse building in an up and coming creative district. However, he’s

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A year and a half ago we profiled Pasadena’s Central District Specific Plan as a model for visionary urban planning. A year or so later the city welcomes Westgate Pasadena, some of the fruits from that labor, in the form of a 12-acre urban village emerging from currently abandoned brownfield industrial buildings and parking lots.

Located right at a transit station, the award-winning three-block development consists of 22,000 s.f. of retail and 820 new condos and apartments, 110 of them

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Rockville, MD may not have a reputation for being a creative urban city in the Washington DC area, but it’s certainly looking to change that in a hurry. It’s Rockville Town Square makes a noble attempt at replicating a piazza, and its upcoming Twinbrook Station is garnering prestigious awards for sustainable urban planning.

The 26-acre Twinbrook (pictured) is a transit-oriented

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The civic leaders of St. Louis Park, an inner-ring suburb of Minneapolis, wanted a downtown where there was none.  They got one in Excelsior & Grand, a 15-acre pedestrian-oriented mixed-use development adjacent to a major park.

Much of the placemaking is effectively urban, with contemporary urban architecture fronting tree-lined sidewalks, no surface parking, and high-ceiling apartments above restaurants and shops.  This is a vast improvement over a strip mall or garden apartment complex.  It

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Yesterday’s entry profiled how a French town evolved from the industrial age to the information age. Today’s entry profiles how a small American city is doing the same while respecting the history that put it on the map.

Just as the city of Robaix, France saw the transformation of its outdated textile factories into modern uses, Durham, North Carolina’s downtown took a major economic turn upward when the first tobacco factory in the country (1874) reopened as the American Tobacco Historic

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Does your town have a manufacturing district that just feels very 1960s? That’s probably because that’s the last time anyone’s invested in them as we slowly evolve to an information-based economy. However, the Olneyville neighborhood in Providence, RI isn’t going to settle for living in that bygone era.

The City designated 175 acres for development investment based on a more contemporary economy - the Promenade District - with 10,000 new jobs, 2000 new residents, and 153 acres of park land. 

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That’s right, they’re the developers, and four years later, they’re in the New York Times - Young, Idealistic and Now Developers.  Starting out four years ago as 22 to 23-year olds with liberal arts degrees and no real estate development experience, Ben, Naomi and Joshua realized that they already had what it took to take on a $15 million urban village - integrity, motivation and capacity.

Located on 2.5 acres in downtown Oberlin, the East College Street green development (after all, the

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As the Netherlands shifts from industry to knowledge-based economy, they certainly know their placemaking, transforming blocks of a neglected industrial district into a $150 million mixed-use development, Arnhem City Center, known locally as ‘Musiskwartier’.

Opening last month, the predominantly a retail/entertainment center hosts a residential community above its shops of condos with terraces, gardens and balconies.  The largely pedestrian-only development features a timeless architectural

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...IF they continue to support more developments like Poinsettia Commons, a $55 million mixed-use, transit-oriented urban-style community that was unanimously approved by the Carlsbad City Council.  For a perspective of Carlsbad’s current creative class status, check out the comments to this entry.

Located right next to a train station leading directly to downtown San Diego, this innovative vision by forward-thinking developer Urban West Strategies is a model for mixed-use development and

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While not exactly fitting in height-wise with the surrounding buildings, developer Scott Kimball’s The Aspen, a $20 million proposed urban mixed-use development in Boise, Idaho has a number of significant innovative, progressive features, including:

- The building site is only 32 feet deep.  Shows how much you can build in the tightest spaces.
- Home buyers have the ability to purchase 600 s.f. modules ($180,000) to build 600 to 2400 s.f. (or more) lofts, in the building locations they choose

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Most people haven’t exactly heard of Collingswood, New Jersey.  It borders Camden, and is within the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area.  Well, having a ban on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars (which I guess means there are none) doesn’t exactly help in attracting the demographic that tends to start new companies and spawn jobs, but at least you can bring your own, which to many may be even better.

A sign that the borough’s residents are embracing an evolution from the

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Up until the middle of the 20th century, the economy of Easthampton, MA ran on textile mills.  Ever since then, the town of 16,000 people about 100 miles west of Boston has been struggling to find a new economy to grow from.

Enter the Eastworks, a 500,000 s.f. former mill turned mecca for arts-related industries founded in 1997 by some rather visionary small developers.  Among designers in clothes, jewelry, software, art and photography are 46 live-work lofts and the Marketplace at Eastworks,

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What to do with 104 acres/23 blocks of failed (the trend nowadays) regional shopping mall?  Well, after you get over how much land these malls really do eat up, you can find a visionary investment team like Continuum Partners to turn it into an urban village, as the image shows.

Yes, the homes in the new mixed-use development of Belmar in Lakewood, Colorado are priced too high for the average person and the stores are mostly chains - not a primary destination for the creative class - but the

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Well, outside of the fact that it’s hardly affordable, the renovated/new Historic Front Street in Seaport North (near the Brooklyn Bridge) in Manhattan is the best creative class development among the seventeen CNU Charter Awards profiled yesterday.

Eleven 18th century buildings plus three brand new buildings host 96 residential apartments for rent from 600 s.f. to 1400 s.f., plus thirteen retail spaces on the ground floor.  The project encompasses the entire block on either side of Front

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If you’re wondering what the best new models for placemaking are each year, it’s wise to keep tabs on the CNU’s (Congress for the New Urbanism) annual

announcement of its Charter Award winners.

Out of 160 entries, here are the 17 they chose, and I’ll profile my favorite over the next couple of days.  Each year the winners are increasingly urban, which is refreshing over past selections that were largely greenfield (ie ‘well-designed sprawl’)

Block, Street, and Building
The Cap at Union

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