San Francisco recently hosted a series of events to make the city's backbone, Market Street, a little more fun. It's the latest of many efforts to revitalize a street that has been problematic even as the rest of the city has boomed.
For the most part, San Francisco's Market Street is no fun. The section in the Financial District is all business, with commuters scurrying into and out of office buildings at all hours of the day. Further up, the mid-Market stretch through the notorious Tenderloin District has been a pocket of blight in one of the nation's most gentrified cities. The city has a $500 million plan to redesign and revitalize the street by 2018.
In the meantime, the Market Street Prototyping Festival, held in early April, is an attempt to inject some fun into the plans for the new Market Street. The festival featured 50 tactical urbanist projects intended to bring fun and neighborholiness to the urban environment. Projects included six-way table tennis, chalk art, combinations of dance and video art, and odd versions of karaoke. The San Francisco planning department's City Design Group, in collaboration with Ghel Studio, is part of the team that will evaluate the 50 prototypes and choose finalists for permanent installation.
“There are old and new residents vying for space in the city, and so we, as city planners, have to find a way to start bringing these sides together. We feel our public spaces have to be those places where people from different backgrounds come together and start to build some empathy," Neil Hrushowy, manager of the City Design Group, told Next City.
FULL STORY: Will S.F.’s Market Street Be Redesigned Into a Place for Play?
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.