The proposal focuses on placemaking and street activation as tools for economic development.
Urban design studio Sitelab, working with the Downtown SF Partnership, revealed a Public Realm Action Plan (PRAP) that reimagines the struggling city’s downtown. “Sitelab and Downtown SF have used the city’s history to inform the plan’s action areas, such as increasing accessibility for pedestrians.”
As Rebecca Barker explains in Fast Company, “Originally published in July 2022, the PRAP—winner of the Pandemic Action category for Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards—identified 6 areas of focus that would make the 43 blocks encompassing the city’s Financial District and Jackson Square ‘a place to be.’”
The plan focuses on “filling alleyways or unused public spaces with pop-ups and vendors, partnering with local restaurants and musicians, and painting murals in accessible areas.”
FULL STORY: This ambitious plan would revitalize downtown San Francisco to end its ‘doom loop’
A ‘Public Realm Action Plan’ Charts San Francisco’s Post-Covid Comeback
A nonprofit business group released a plan to trigger the post-pandemic revitalization of Downtown San Francisco by reclaiming public space for human scale activity. But is an improved public realm sufficient to meet the challenge?
11,000 Housing Units Possible with S.F. Office Conversions, Study Says
A new study by SPUR and the Urban Land Institute’s San Francisco chapter estimates a specific number of apartment units that could be built from vacant office units in the city.
A Case Study of San Francisco's Evolution—at 10th and Mission
San Francisco Chronicle Architecture Critic John King dives into the economic and planning dynamics behind the remarkable transformation of 10th and Mission in San Francisco.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association