Strengthening Economic Development

Author(s): Jodi Farrell, Adrianne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; Ana Morgenstern, University of Miami; Michael Forsyth, REVOLVE; Laura Zabel, Springboard for the Arts; Kimberly Driggins, DC Office of Planning

Strengthening Economic Development: Anchoring

Authors: Jodi Farrell and Ana Morgenstern
Organization: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Program: Town Square Anchor for a Changing Skyline
Location: Miami–Dade County, FL

At a Glance

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts leverages its status as a world-class arts and cultural institution to anchor economic development in Miami’s racially and economically segregated downtown area, benefitting commercial investors and local businesses while improving living standards for local residents. Through the implementation of its Town Square initiative, the Arsht Center addresses the long-term effect of growth on the existing infrastructure—particularly with regard to traffic, walkability, and parking. In addition, the center calls for public and private developers to respect the following key design principles: organized public open spaces, connectivity to nearby communities, dynamic mixed-use buildings, enhancement of existing landmarks, and roadways and sidewalks that encourage foot traffic. The degree to which construction projects in the area have adhered to these principles since 2011, when Town Square began, is the center’s primary measure of success.

Overview

Built with public and private funds, and owned by Miami–Dade County, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts has been credited with attracting more than $1 billion in investment in downtown Miami as developers from Spain, Argentina, and Malaysia have learned about the area’s cultural awakening. Opened in 2006, the 550,000-square-foot center was purposely built in an unpopulated, blighted area of downtown Miami to spur development. The Arsht Center’s board strongly believed that critical infrastructure and an arts identity should not be left purely to chance or market demands, but that it should rely on a planning model to organize and transform the space. In 2011, with private developers from around the globe buying vacant land surrounding it, the Arsht Center organized a group of cultural leaders and area stakeholders to create a vision for its rapidly changing neighborhood, called the Town Square. Its master plan and aggressive pursuit of improved living standards in the area ensure the arts will be an integral part of downtown Miami’s revitalization.

Context for Creative Placemaking

Miami–Dade County is majority-minority, with Hispanics (66 percent) and African Americans (19 percent) constituting the dominant populations. Racial and income segregation are two of the biggest challenges facing the area. Miami has the third highest rate of income inequality among US cities after Atlanta and New Orleans, roughly on par with Mexico City. With 30 international banks and 28 consulates in Miami, the “Gateway to the Americas” also faces infrastructure challenges in keeping up with its expanding population and business activity. Miami residents love their cars, and as a result, the city ranks 18th in the nation in public transportation use, although it ranks 12th in population. The downtown population directly south of the Arsht Center has grown from 40,000 to 70,000 in less than a decade, with another 15,000 people expected in the next few years.

How Creative Placemaking Helps

One of Town Square’s first major accomplishments was the creation of a neighborhood master plan by the Arsht Center’s original architect, César Pelli. Written in collaboration with cultural leaders, traffic engineers, community stakeholders, city planners, public officials, and urban planning consultants hired by the Arsht Center, the aspirational plan addresses the long-term effect of growth on the existing infrastructure, particularly with regard to traffic, walkability, and parking. It calls for public and private developers to be culturally aware and respectful of a holistic vision for urban livability that is mindful of the following key design principles: organized public open spaces, connectivity with nearby communities, dynamic mixed-use buildings, enhancement of existing landmarks, and roadways and sidewalks that encourage foot traffic. The center, as the neighborhood’s anchor institution, seeks to ensure inclusivity by connecting the area to Overtown, an adjacent, historically black neighborhood; Museum Park, a sprawling configuration of museums and a public park along Biscayne Bay; and Wynwood Art District, an up-and-coming district composed largely of start-up companies, galleries, and artists.

Implementation

Instead of one government entity or organization leading the charge for neighborhood development, Town Square has strengthened itself by partnering with various government institutions; other arts/entertainment organizations; and civic leaders, philanthropists, developers, and community organizers. The “creative bureaucracy” organized by the center has broken down the traditional confines of government and culture. The nonpartisan collaborating network is not a controller, but an enabler that provides broad direction, strategic focus, and a collective vision. The involvement of all stakeholders—elected representatives, professionals, residents, and organizations—has been imperative in establishing ownership of the project and strengthening its possibilities for success.

The Arsht Center emerged as an anchoring leader in this effort partly because it was the first and largest organization to occupy the neighborhood. Spending by the Arsht Center and its audiences has a $220 million annual economic effect on Florida, generating 450 hotel room nights, more than $4.5 million in local and state taxes, and more than 1,500 jobs. For a cultural center and group with no land rights or power, Town Square has earned significant respect and support. Since its master plan was publicly discussed at a town hall meeting at the center in 2012, an increasing number of private developers have altered proposals to embrace its principles. Genting Group, a Malaysian conglomerate aspiring to build a hotel– retail complex next to the Arsht Center on a waterfront site formerly owned by the Miami Herald, has scaled back the design’s size and incorporated a public park. Other developers have added street-level retail to their condominium and apartment towers. Even the Florida Department of Transportation has altered its redevelopment of a nearby interstate overpass and agreed to construct a taller signature bridge allowing walkability underneath.

In 2013, the Arsht Center became the first major cultural institution in the nation to establish its own Office of Neighborhood Development (OND), which, with the assistance of national consultants, is actively pursuing its own development opportunities, including a new public piazza, a revamped on-site restaurant, and a new bookstore café. The OND is collaborating with Miami–Dade County Public Schools, which owns land in the neighborhood, to explore the possibility of building a mixed-use facility that could house parking, retail, and a new high school magnet program devoted to the arts. Transportation and urban planning consultants hired by OND continue to benefit state and local roadway reconstruction and parking for the neighborhood.

Progress to Date

Parking, pedestrian-friendly streets, and connectivity to adjacent neighborhoods continue to be challenges for Town Square. However, in the past three years, the “signals of momentum” used by the center to track its progress are showing signs of success. The community is cleaner, safer, and far more attractive than it has been. Other arts institutions, studios, restaurants, and businesses are settling into the area. A new 30-acre public urban park has opened within walking distance. A growing number of alternative public transportation options—a free trolley, a car-sharing business, and proposed higher-speed rail service—have been added to the city’s above-ground transit system. Four residential towers are under construction and three others are planned. The Arsht Center will continue to track these livability indicators to gauge Town Square’s success, along with comparative data on the number of new residents in the area, completed construction projects, and attendance at Arsht Center events.

Jodi Mailander Farrell is senior director of foundation relations at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, where she has worked for five years. She was a journalist in Florida for more than 20 years at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post. Her writing has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Latina, People, Robb Report and DC Comics, among other diverse publications. She continues to write about food, travel and culture for the Miami Herald and other newspapers and magazines, and is the “Culture Insider” for Visit Florida, the state’s consumer travel news agency.

Ana Morgenstern, PhD, is the grant writer at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, where she works to ensure that the organization may fulfill its mission of engaging diverse communities through the power of the performing arts. Ana received a PhD from the University of Miami where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in a multidisciplinary study, where she co-authored several studies published in Nature and IEEE. She also holds a MPA with a specialization in nonprofit administration. She has been a Webb Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution and a distinguished fellow with the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. Passionate about people-centered art, Ana is also the co-founder and habitual contributor to Independent Ethos, an online publication that celebrates culture and art as independent means of expression.

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Strengthening Economic Development: Activating

Author: Michael Forsyth
Organization: Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC)
Program: REVOLVE Detroit
Location: Detroit, MI

At a Glance

REVOLVE Detroit strengthens economic development along Livernois Avenue, Detroit’s historic “Avenue of Fashion,” by activating vacant commercial real estate with pop-up and long-term arts programs that draw on the area’s storied jazz culture, diverse population, and history as a once-great luxury shopping sector. Since 2013, two of REVOLVE Detroit’s longer-term pop-up businesses have signed permanent leases. In addition, attention in local, regional, and national media has helped sustained interest in the project. Two of the major redevelopment sites activated during the project are under construction, resulting in private investment of approximately $2.5 million that will create approximately 80 jobs.

Overview

REVOLVE Detroit is a collaborative program created by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC). The program partners with community leaders, building owners, entrepreneurs, and artists to transform vacant storefronts into businesses and art installations. The goal of the program is to foster vibrancy among Detroit’s neighborhood business districts. REVOLVE Detroit’s 2013 creative placemaking activities along Livernois Avenue, focused on how temporary arts and entrepreneurial activity encourage larger, long-term, place-based investment strategies. This work demonstrated how local government, economic development agencies, and other community-based organizations can strengthen economic development by using creative placemaking to activate underused spaces. The Livernois Avenue project was created by the Livernois Working Group, a collaborative consisting of government, universities, philanthropy, business, and community development stakeholders.

Context for Creative Placemaking

During the 1940s-1970s, Livernois Avenue was a top destination for luxury shopping and entertainment in Detroit. Businesses such as B. Siegel Company, Woolworths, and Grinnell— the famed piano company—were trendsetters in the retail industry. African American cultural heritage played a principal role in shaping the arts and business along Livernois. The avenue has a rich musical legacy defined by American jazz. Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, America’s oldest operating jazz club, has hosted performances on the avenue since 1934. Famed musicians such as Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis have graced Baker’s stage. Strong economic assets provide more support for the business district. Livernois Avenue is surrounded by some of the city’s most stable and architecturally distinctive neighborhoods. Two of the city’s premiere higher education institutions, the University of Detroit Mercy and Marygrove College, are one to two miles from the main shopping district.

Despite these assets, the business district currently suffers from high vacancy, retail leakage, and a current image that is inconsistent with its rich historical brand. The Livernois Working Group has recognized the need to generate entrepreneurial interest in the area based on its unique arts and culture legacy, putting the arts at the center of its revitalization strategy.

How Creative Placemaking Helps

In 2013, REVOLVE Detroit began working with the local community development corporation, University Commons, to identify property owners with vacant spaces and pending redevelopment projects in a two-block stretch in the heart of the business district. Once a series of committed property owners agreed to cooperate, the Detroit Collaborative Design Center—a multidisciplinary, nonprofit architecture and urban design firm at the University of Detroit Mercy’s School of Architecture and key collaborator—created the Livernois Community Storefront. This served as the first temporary vacant storefront activation and demonstrated the potential for repurposing the commercial corridor along Livernois.

Creative placemaking projects facilitating temporary use of vacant space through creative means can help solve some problems. But while these small investments can have big effects, they are not an end-all, be-all solution. When creative placemaking initiatives are integrated in a portfolio of investments or interventions, long-term sustainable change is more likely. These initiatives are particularly well suited for collaborations allowing multiple actors to contribute to the change they want to see. Involving multiple partners at the local, city, regional, and state levels when creating a broader vision for business district revitalization can instigate additional investments. When creative placemaking is part of the vision, the momentum and excitement planted by small investments and small projects help illustrate potential solutions and support the case for tackling larger opportunities and challenges.

Implementation

A creative placemaking initiative to activate 10 vacant storefronts and three public spaces began in May 2013. It began with Livernois Community Storefront hosting “Light Up Livernois,” showcasing Livernois businesses, assets, and local entrepreneurs.

REVOLVE Detroit launched an international call to artists and entrepreneurs to submit proposals to repurpose vacant spaces. The project team targeted equal representation from Detroit-based, national, and international artists, along with opportunities to engage local university students. Another desired project outcome was to empower artists and entrepreneurs to create unique, arts-forward retail environments while delivering the vision and functionality that specific businesses desired. The proposal review committee included Charles McGee, a prominent Detroit artist; Rufus Bartell, a long-time Livernois boutique owner and property owner participating in the project; and representatives from the local community development corporation, neighborhood organizations, and neighboring universities.

For two months, artists, entrepreneurs, building owners, community volunteers, and project teams collaborated on 31 unique projects. “We Came in Peace,” the experiential design firm serving as the project’s creative director, quickly scaled their team to bring in additional design-build consultants, contractors, and production assistants to execute events quickly. Relationship management was important throughout the implementation process. The primary daily challenge was to facilitate common actions and consensus among artists, entrepreneurs, and landlords who spoke different languages and had different work styles, objectives, and personalities.

Resulting projects included two permanent businesses and 12 pop-up businesses ranging from one-day to 90-day activations (some of which hoped to become permanent fixtures along the avenue). Eighteen art projects were also completed as part of the initiative. These projects spanned the spectrum of artistic mediums, engagement techniques, and degrees of permanency. Art installations included two large-scale exterior murals showcasing prominent local African American musicians by Baltimore-based artist Michael Owen. Several artist teams transformed the interiors of new retail shops. Temporary installations ranged from theater, spoken word, music, dance, and diverse visual arts mediums.

Progress to Date

Projects were unveiled to a regional audience of approximately 3,000 people at the Detroit Design Festival in September 2013. Since then, two pop-up stores have signed permanent leases, and the attention generated from the project has helped recruit several other permanent businesses. Two of the major redevelopment sites activated during the project are under construction, resulting in private investment of approximately $2.5 million that will create approximately 80 jobs. Increased media visibility continues to elevate the business district with increased regional coverage, and a recent New York Times story highlighted development progress in Detroit.

The project produced several valuable lessons. This work is very labor intensive: going forward, REVOLVE Detroit will allocate more staff time and resources to assist first-time business owners and to manage the delicate collaboration between artists and entrepreneurs. Value exists in upfront assessment and planning: in the future, REVOLVE Detroit will conduct more in-depth due diligence on business owners and project spaces, engaging the help of experienced design-build consultants. This will include a better assessment of project feasibility to identify risks and challenges, and to scope costs. Ongoing programming is essential to sustain the momentum of short-term interventions: Detroit Collaborative Design Center has instituted “Third Thursdays on Livernois,” hosting regularly scheduled events throughout the district to attract customers to new and established businesses.

Michael Forsyth is the business development manager with the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the founder and program manager for REVOLVE Detroit. REVOLVE is a collaborative program of the DEGC that partners with local leaders, building owners, entrepreneurs, and artists to activate vacant storefronts with transformational businesses and art installations. Michael Forsyth attended Michigan State University where he earned a degree in environmental studies and a master’s in urban planning. Prior to joining the DEGC, Mr. Forsyth studied temporary use in Germany’s post-industrial cities and joined a Seattle consulting firm where he led a range of economic development projects.

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Strengthening Economic Development: “Fixing”

Author: Laura Zabel
Organization: Springboard for the Arts
Program: Irrigate
Location: St. Paul, MN

At a Glance

The Irrigate program strengthens economic development in St. Paul, MN, and Fergus, MN, by empowering artists to create inviting, whimsical projects that draw attention to small businesses adversely affected by construction along the new Green Line of the Twin Cities’ light-rail. Irrigate’s creative placemaking initiatives increase foot traffic and attract new revenue streams through pop-up performances, art installations, and community outreach initiatives, effectively recasting the disruptive construction as a reason to visit the area. Irrigate was developed by Springboard for the Arts, an economic and community development organization that connects artists with information and resources in an effort to build more vibrant communities.

Overview

Springboard for the Arts strives to create reciprocal relationships between artists and communities in and around St. Paul and Fergus Falls. To that end, in 2011, Springboard for the Arts, the City of St. Paul, and Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), developed the Irrigate project as a series of artist-led creative placemaking activities. This unique cross-sector partnership came from the city’s desire to mitigate the disruptive effects of major infrastructure projects on the community by leveraging the creative skills of their residents. For three years, Irrigate trained artists from the neighborhoods in community organizing, and provided support for them to pursue collaborative partnerships with businesses and neighborhood organizations. Irrigate has trained more than 600 artists and has supported more than 180 collaborative creative placemaking projects that bring artists, neighborhood organizations, and local businesses closer together.

Context for Creative Placemaking

The new Green Line of the Twin Cities’ light-rail stretches through the heart of St. Paul and connects some of the most traditionally underinvested yet culturally significant neighborhoods in the city. It has garnered public investment of nearly $1 billion, with an additional $7 billion leveraged in private investment made possible, in large part, by a coalition of local and national foundations called the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative. The collaborative anticipates that the Green Line will bring economic development and vitality to the community. At the same time, it acknowledges the burdens that living through four years of sustained construction has placed on residents and the diverse small businesses that cater to them. Traditional methods for addressing these challenges—community meetings, town halls, and employing marketing consultants—have yielded few tangible results.

How Creative Placemaking Helps

Through a set of arts projects, Irrigate builds social capital among a wide set of residents and draws attention and revenue to small businesses and commercial areas affected by the Green Line construction. Irrigate was developed through a collaboration that uses Springboard’s expertise in artist training and community problem solving, LISC’s background in “brick and mortar” community development, and the City of St. Paul’s policy and planning knowledge. Participation in Irrigate has established Springboard as a trusted resource for artists seeking greater community engagement, placing them at sites where they can be the most effective and providing technical assistance to ensure their projects are actualized.

Before Irrigate, Springboard maintained relationships with staff at LISC and the City of St. Paul, but it had never partnered with them on a large-scale initiative. The Irrigate collective reflects the city’s desire to find new ways to support the community during the Green Line disruption. It also reflects the willingness of Springboard and LISC to develop new strategies for communities to think creatively about their development. In addition to the three leading partners, six district councils representing the neighborhoods along Green Line served as critical collaborators for Irrigate. Community organizers from these neighborhood organizations cofacilitated artist training with Springboard staff, giving artists well-connected allies to help them find business and neighborhood partners for their projects.

Implementation

Two of Irrigate’s key messages are that artists are assets for their neighborhoods and that every neighborhood has artists. These messages were a rallying cry for artists who were excited to use their creative skills to improve the places where they lived. Without prompting, artists who participated in the training started calling themselves “Irrigate Artists,” showing up at each other’s events, sharing resources, and communicating with each other through a private Facebook group.

Small projects can build a sense of ownership among people who share a place. In three years, Irrigate has trained more than 600 artists in the community using simple organizing tools. These artists have generated more than 180 collaborative placemaking projects. Irrigate’s only requirement was that the projects should demonstrate a partnership between artists and neighborhood organizations or businesses. Suddenly, small, creative, engaging, and interesting projects, popping up everywhere, give people reasons to patronize local businesses. Examples include the following:

• Artist Chris Gardella works with the Black Dog Cafe to construct a giant black dog puppet that roams the neighborhood while the restaurant’s sign is obscured by construction.
• Artist Kristen Murray declares herself “artist in residence” for a bus stop and spends weeks engaging neighbors in art-making activities and gathering their input on important neighborhood issues, including a new stop for the light-rail.
• Artist Carrie Christensen constructs a series of wayfinding bikes that help people find local businesses amid the construction (the bikes appear as temporary billboards, locked to public bike racks).
• Artist Mira Kehoe organizes a monthly jazz night at Mai Village Restaurant, an important community gathering space owned by first-generation immigrants from Vietnam, after construction workers had dug a moat around the site. These jazz nights increase nightly revenue by 50 percent.
• Artist Dianne E’Laine creates a song and Zumba dance called the “Light Rail Shuffle.” Initially performed at Arnellia’s Night Club, this song is both an expression of joy and a song about how constructing the light-rail echoes the construction of the interstate, which cut through Rondo, a historically African American neighborhood. The “Light Rail Shuffle” has become a sort of anthem, and Dianne performs and teaches it at community events and celebrations.

Progress to Date

One of the most important ways Irrigate measures its progress is by charting the public’s perception of the neighborhoods along the Green Line. By supporting several small projects, Irrigate has demonstrated how the arts can inspire positive media coverage and increased visibility. As Irrigate projects started to appear, they provided daily opportunities for the press to write about fun, interesting, curious, and authentic happenings in St. Paul’s neighborhoods— compelling stories that did not focus on the difficulties and disruption of the construction projects. Irrigate set up simple tracking mechanisms to collect media stories generated by the artists’ projects. Tunheim Market Research conducted a study of these stories, showing that Irrigate generated more than 30 million positive earned media impressions of an area that otherwise would have had a nearly exclusively negative public perception. Irrigate can compare these numbers to the typical return on investment of a marketing firm that places ads, which could generate only 5.25 million purchased media impressions with the same amount of investment. In addition to the effect on neighborhood perception, businesses and other groups that participated in Irrigate saw increased interest and foot traffic because of the projects. Ninety percent of participating businesses say they are “more likely” as a result of the project to work with an artist again.

Because of the success of Irrigate in St. Paul, the Irrigate model has been piloted and adapted at different funding levels to inspire artists everywhere. The Irrigate toolkit developed by Springboard for the Arts is available at www.springboardexchange.org.

Laura Zabel is executive director of Springboard for the Arts, an economic and community development agency based in Minnesota. Springboard provides programs that help artists make a living and a life, and programs that help communities tap into the resource that artists provide. Some of Springboard’s projects include: Community Supported Art (CSA), the Artists Access to Healthcare program, and the Irrigate project, a national model for how cities can engage artists to help reframe and address big community challenges. Springboard’s programs have been replicated in over 50 communities across the country. Springboard recently launched the Creative Exchange, a new national platform for story and resource sharing.

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Strengthening Economic Development: Planning

Author: Kimberly Driggins
Organization: District of Columbia Office of Planning (OP)
Program: Arts and Culture Temporiums
Location: Washington, DC

At a Glance

In 2012, the District of Columbia Office of Planning (OP) piloted elements of its longterm Central 14th Street Corridor Plan and Revitalization Strategy through small-scale arts and culture “Temporiums,” which took place in Wards 1 and 4 of Washington, DC. The Temporiums were only one component of a broader planning initiative that blended several traditional and nontraditional community investment approaches. Based on data collected from three sites along the Central 14th Street Corridor where the Temporiums occurred, OP concluded that an arts-based approach is an effective, affordable way to test comprehensive, long-term initiatives. OP now implements similar approaches in the early phases of all its economic development planning.

Overview

OP is the chief planning agency for Washington, DC. Its mission is to guide real estate development in the District of Columbia, including preserving and revitalizing its distinctive neighborhoods. In 2011, OP created arts and culture Temporiums in four emerging creative neighborhoods along Central 14th Street. Temporiums are temporary, pop-up creative and retail projects that aim to reduce vacancy and spark economic development. In a six-month period, recommendations made by the Central 14th Street Corridor Plan and Revitalization Strategy were pilot tested in each of the corridor’s three struggling commercial areas. Artsbased activities were central to these pilots.

Context for Creative Placemaking

The Central 14th Street area, only one-quarter mile north of Columbia Heights, includes several residential neighborhoods with clearly defined business districts. This 1.3-mile corridor includes three distinct commercial areas, each with its own character, challenges, and potential. The area bounded by Spring Road to the south and Longfellow Street to the north encompasses Wards 1 and 4. Surrounding neighborhoods include 14th Street Heights, 16th Street Heights, Crestwood, Petworth, and Brightwood. Approximately 14,500 residents live in these neighborhoods, and as of the 2010 Census, the racial composition of the area is 48 percent African American, 31 percent Latino, and 16 percent white.

The 14th street corridor was a thriving commercial district for much of the 20th century, but it was devastated after the race riots of 1968. The ensuing exodus of long-time residents and the loss of commercial businesses further accelerated the corridor’s decline, amid mounting concerns about safety. More recently, however, Central 14th Street has undergone a transformation. More private interest and investment, accompanied by a sizable increase in population, have spurred OP to think broadly about how to plan the next phases of the corridor’s revitalization. The Central 14th Street Vision Plan and Revitalization Strategy was initiated in 2009. After receiving extensive input from the community, OP adopted the following goals: to enliven retail and encourage patronage in the area; to create active, safe, and walkable streets; to increase connectivity between commercial areas; and to develop more green areas in public spaces. The plan was approved by the city council in the fall of 2012.

How Creative Placemaking Helps

From April to October 2012, the Central 14th Street project hosted a series of temporary, catalytic, art- and cultural-based activities (Temporiums) that celebrated each of three commercial areas along 14th Street, from Spring Road to Longfellow Street Northwest. Residents and visitors were invited to experience the corridor’s culturally diverse businesses and unique public space through art-based activities. The Central 14th Street Vision Plan and Revitalization Strategy called for unique, episodic activities that would recreate a reason for patrons not merely to pass by, but actually stop and enjoy 14th Street’s hidden treasures. The goal of the plan was to position the 14th Street Corridor to attract public and private investment, as well as reposition itself as the vibrant commercial heart of Ward 4.

Four major efforts took place in a six-month period to pilot the Vision Plan and Revitalization Strategy:

1. Celebrating Colorado Triangle as a public plaza (April 2012). The Colorado Triangle area, between 14th Street and Longfellow Street, was transformed into a unique arts cluster by temporarily closing off a portion of Colorado Avenue and designating a pedestrian friendly art plaza. Visitors and residents painted a public mural, created landscaping, and used temporary seating.
2. Experiencing the corridor through arts and culture (May to October 2012). Foot traffic in the Bus Barn area, between Decatur Street and Webster Street Northwest, was increased through a series of musical performances and a large community festival that gave residents an opportunity to linger on the corridor’s large sidewalks and patronize local businesses.
3. Repositioning to benefit from Columbia Heights (August 2012). A “food, art, and cultural crawl”—to support restaurants along Spring Road and Shepherd Street—was a combination of an art showcase and progressive neighborhood dinner tour. The event made approximately $1,000 from ticket sales, and the proceeds were reinvested in the surrounding businesses.
4. Connecting the commercial areas (July 2012). Increasing the area’s aesthetic appeal and improving its walkability, and connecting each of the commercial areas, was approached through beautification. Through a community charette, stakeholders (residents, property owners, artists, and business owners) designed temporary street furniture for the corridor’s wide sidewalks. After the charette, the street furniture was refabricated by a local company and assembled and painted by residents during a subsequent workshop. Approximately 30 pieces of temporary furniture were made and could be seen in various storefronts and public spaces along the corridor.

Implementation

The Central 14th Street project is a model for how public and private partnerships can work collaboratively during the early stages of a broader, long-term planning process. OP’s partners were selected on the basis of their experience executing complex public art projects and building community relationships with property and business owners. Key partners included Rebar, a California-based public art and design studio that provided valuable advice on how best to translate community input and plan recommendations for art mediums suited to the space; the 14th Street Uptown Business Association (14 UBA), a local merchants association, which helped connect key business leaders with Rebar and communicate the vision plan to local businesses and provide incentives to participate; and the Commission on Arts and Humanities, which was instrumental in helping OP identify a curator and artists for the project.

Progress to Date

The neighborhoods involved in the vision plan underwent immediate structural and aesthetic improvements as a result of the Temporiums. Businesses received storefront upgrades; community-building initiatives and sustained dialogue occurred among residents and business owners; and 14 UBA developed better organizational capacity by obtaining technical assistance from the city.

Owing to the success of the Temporiums in 2012, the OP has fundamentally changed how it goes about neighborhood planning. It now incorporates early initiatives that harness the arts and design for all neighborhood planning studies and projects. As small-scale enterprises, these activities help OP visualize the specific ways a neighborhood might benefit when a more comprehensive, longer-term plan is fully implemented. Temporiums, then, can serve as a litmus test for the types of large-scale investments from the private and public sectors that are most likely to yield positive results in a given area.

Kimberly C. Driggins is the associate director for citywide planning in the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning. She is responsible for managing citywide planning projects across several areas including: housing, economic development, transportation, facilities and capital improvement planning. In addition, Kimberly serves as the project manager for several OP creative placemaking initiatives including: Temporary Urbanism program, Kresge Foundation and ArtPlace grants, and the Third Place initiative. She received a MPP from the University of Chicago and a BA in political science from Hampton University.