At Franklin Park, a group of Washington city planners and their team of consultants are seeking to succeed where others have failed - revive an old D.C. park - and provide a model for similar spaces in the process.
As part of a special report on the shifting landscape of downtown D.C. appearing in The Washington Post Magazine, "a laboratory that could help the District join a renaissance of park development that is sweeping the country."
Although the city has found success in creating new parks with federal and private partners, it "has not yet cracked the code of reanimating that most archetypal of urban open spaces, the simple old city park," writes Montgomery. "That’s where Franklin Park comes in. The city and the National Park Service (which owns Franklin and most green acres in Washington) have budgeted $1 million through 2014 to plan and design a revitalized Franklin, with prodding from surrounding businesses via the Downtown Business Improvement District."
In addition to finding the funds to actually complete the work once the plan is completed, "[t]he challenge [for designers] will be finding the proper balance between active and passive, constructed and open, trendy and eternal," notes Montgomery.
FULL STORY: Creating the park of the future
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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.
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Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions