Five plans for revitalizing urban areas, three with strong emphasis on reclaiming waterfronts, have taken top accolades and received 2004 AIA Honor Awards for Regional and Urban Design. All of these plans emphasize sustainability of the environment and the need to contain sprawl as these areas develop. The plans span the country, with two on the West Coast, one on the East Coast, and two in the heartland.

Chicago Central Area Plan, Chicago, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP with Associate Architect Panto-Ulema Architects, for the City of Chicago
The successful growth of Chicago’s Central Area over the last 15 years brings with it new questions about the location, scale, and design of new buildings; how future land uses and densities can be organized; balancing growth with quality of place and quality of life; and how to make mass transit the first choice for everyone traveling to the Central Area. The Central Area Plan, encompassing almost six square miles and with some of the densest urban districts in the nation, is distinguished by its scale. Planning in the U.S. rarely is conducted at this scale. The plan provides a guide to economic success, physical growth, and environmental sustainability. The commitment to transit and intermodal systems, as well as to expansion and connection of open spaces and waterfronts, is fundamental to how this area will grow. The effectiveness of the plan can be seen in the transformation of how new development projects are understood in Chicago. “This plan takes a complex problem and explains it with understandable themes and graphics that communicate well,” the jury said. “It illustrates an understanding of the city as a growing organism, recognizing the past so it keeps the historic character but adapts and develops in a bigger way.”

Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley, San Jose, Calif., by WRT/Solomon E.T.C., for Greenbelt Alliance
Getting it Right, the comprehensive vision plan for Coyote Valley commissioned by an environmental-advocacy group, promotes an urbane and sustainable alternative to sprawl on the southern edge of San Jose, Calif. The 6,800 acres of prime farmland and watershed lands that comprise Coyote Valley are targeted to accommodate at least 50,000 new jobs and 25,000 new housing units, or roughly 17 million square feet of office and industrial space and 80,000 new residents. The plan’s goals include building a constituency to challenge conventions of sprawl implicit in the city’s general plan, influence the city’s specific-plan process soon to be under way, and provide a site-specific, sustainable framework for development based on the principles of Smart Growth and New Urbanism. The plan also proposes to ensure that early phases of development establish a distinctive sense of place and a dynamic of growth that reinforces its character over time. “This plan truly illustrates an effective alternative to sprawl in 6,800 acres of farm land,” according to the jury. “The plan clearly depicts land use options for public and community with a variety of uses.”

Mission Bay Redevelopment Plan, San Francisco, by Johnson Fain, with Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris, and Associate Architect Machado and Silvetti Associates Inc., for Catellus Development Corporation
The 303-acre Mission Bay Redevelopment Area literally was created from the topography of the rest of the city: Hills were leveled and dumped into Mission Bay along with debris from the 1906 earthquake. Today’s changing economic, social, and cultural values now dictate that the industrial wasteland of Mission Bay be integrated into the rest of the city. The plan identifies the essential “building blocks” of the city. Rather than creating a stand-alone precinct, the plan extends these into Mission Bay to create a new community that is physically and perceptually integrated into the city’s urban fabric. The product of an energetic and inclusionary public process, the Mission Bay Plan proposed a mixed-use urban neighborhood consisting of 6,000 housing units, including 1,700 affordable housing units; 800,000 square feet of retail, including neighborhood, city-serving, and entertainment; a 500-room hotel; 5 million square feet of commercial-industrial uses; and a 2.65-million-square-foot University of California San Francisco medical research campus. “This plan has a nice mix of public spaces that accommodate lots of public activities,” the jury commented. “Urbanistically, it relates to San Francisco as a whole and establishes its own grid in a straightforward manner.”

The Confluence: A Conservation, Heritage, and Recreation Corridor, St. Louis, by The HOK Planning Group, with Associate Architect H3 Studio Inc., for the Confluence: A Conservation, Heritage, and Recreation Corridor
“A fitting tribute to the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration,” declared the jury. “This is a big idea in a big area with an inventory of little things you can actually experience.” Since 1803, when President Thomas Jefferson authorized the purchase of the Mississippi-Missouri River watershed, the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers has been a powerful natural resource and, at times, an overlooked national treasure. The purpose of this master plan is to raise the status of the confluence as a national treasure, allow the people of St. Louis a better quality of life through eco-tourism, and develop a community-supported vision for a system of riverfront parks and trails. The architects say all of this will be accomplished by expanding recreational opportunities, preserving open space, improving environmental quality, celebrating the area’s heritage, and supporting local economic development. The master-plan project area covers more than 200 square miles within the St. Louis metropolitan area.

UrbanRiver Visions, Massachusetts, by Goody, Clancy & Associates for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
Recognizing that urban waterfront communities in Massachusetts share common challenges of urban decay—including a lack of funding for rebuilding—this new state agency fosters riverfront planning efforts on a local level, but with the input of a wide range of key federal, state, and local agencies. The program promotes smart growth, focusing on new infrastructure and other resources in the urban core. This program also illustrates how well collaboration among community officials, business owners, and residents can develop vision and action plans for urban riverfronts and a shared vision through a public-participation process. Since its completion less than nine months ago, communities have established working committees to implement some of the more ambitious elements, the architects note. The collaborative process of shaping the plans has accelerated dramatically the pace and scope of enhancements to these riverfronts. “This plan is an important first step in educating the public about the possibilities of revitalization. It represents a true collaborative process whereby each community has a different asset that is shared along the river,” the jury noted. “Fifty years ago, the river was viewed as least desirable, but now it is seen as the center of the community.”

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