Imagining nearby places remade: Week 3

April 2, 2014
Categories: General News Tags: GET INVOLVED, PLANNING, Tactical Urbanism, Urban Design

In honor of our second anniversary, PlanCharlotte.org is asking readers to nominate spots in the Charlotte region that need a design makeover. (See our first installment in this series here and our second installment here.

Urban designers Keihly Moore and Alex Borisenko have launched a website, www.completeblocks.com, where they’re proposing a series of urban design retrofits, many of them nominated by readers.

So far, we’ve highlighted places on South Boulevard, in Plaza Midwood, the Seventh Street bridge over Interstate 277, and South Church Street next to the new Romare Bearden Park. This week we head north to Davidson.

This week’s retrofit

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This week we head north along the path of the proposed LYNX Red Line (commuter rail) for a retrofit submitted by Scott Curry, a planner and designer colleague of Moore and Borisenko at the Lawrence Group in Davidson. These railroad tracks just west of Davidson’s historic downtown district sit atop a berm. The tracks limit access and connectivity from the west side neighborhoods and nearby Roosevelt Wilson Park. Residents have worn down an informal path, which can be seen in the before photo. In the “after” photo at the top of the page, Curry has added a brick walkway, lights and a pedestrian underpass to connect downtown with the west side neighborhoods.

Here’s how you can nominate places in your town or neighborhood for some urban design makeover magic:

  • If possible, take a “Before” photo.
  • It isn’t necessary but if you like, create your own vision for an improvement, using tools such as Photoshop, sketching or collage.

Then submit your “before” photo (and the “after” image, if you have one) or just submit a suggestion, without photos, in one of several ways:

  • Email plancharlotte@gmail.com with “Nominated for a makeover” in the subject line.
  • Or visit the Complete Blocks website here and add your suggested location (and suggested improvements) to the map. Watch the video if you need instructions for adding spots to the map.