Ellen Dunham-Jones, AIA

Professor, MSUD Coordinator, Georgia Institute of Technology Images are for academic purposes only and may not have copyright approval

Sustaining Vibrant Communities

Through Redevelopment

Gwinnett’s developments and policies did a great job attracting yesterday’s

talent with yesterday’s development model.

But, is it the preferred model for the next generation?

Nationwide 24-35 year olds are 64% more likely to live within 3 miles of

downtown than their counterparts (Cortright, 2011). In Atlanta, from 2007-2010,

jobs within 3 miles increased 1.3% while dropping .4% 3-10 miles away and

.9% 10-35 miles away. From 2010-2011, metro Atlanta’s cities grew 2.4% while

the suburbs only grew 1.3%

2012: < 10% of Gen Y and Active boomers said they want to live in a suburb

where you have to drive everywhere, despite 40% living there today (Harris Poll

for the American Planning Association, released April 2014)

market driver headlines :

demographic

shifts suburbia simply isn’t “family-focused”

anymore. 2/3 of suburban hh’s don’t have

kids, 85% of new hh’s won’t through 2025 .

Millennials are looking for nightlife and value

wifi and connectedness more than cars.

the new centers as metros have expanded, first ring suburbs

and commercial corridors now have central

locations, often meriting densification and

urbanization of their “underperforming

asphalt”.

price premiums 70-400% for walkable urbanism

Atlanta, GA – 2013:

• 60% of development 2008-2012

took place in < 0.1% of metro land:

Atlanta’s 27 Walk UPS.

• 112% avg rent premium in Walk

Ups

• Nationwide, over half of Walk UPs

are in areas of suburbs that are

urbanizing

strategy:

ATL Walk UPs Atlanta: Chris Leinberger, Mason Austin

A vision for

converting a dying

mall and its

surroundings into

planned town center

Gwinnett Place Mall, Duluth, GA: Gwinnett

Place CID

1988 2012

2025?

Unintended vulnerabilities

public health and aging suburban living raises risk of obesity, suicide, and death by automobile crashes

auto-dependence & carbon Suburbanites’ carbon footprints are 2-3 times larger than urbanites’

Gwinnecians average 24.8 miles by car per day (ARC, 2012 Transportation Fact Book)

water & energy efficiency/resilience living compactly reduces per capita water and energy use

Gwinnecians use an average of 92 gallons of water/day (ARC, 2011, Water Metrics)

poverty, equity and social capital since 2005 more Americans in poverty live in suburbs than cities

Nearly 2.5 times more Gwinnecians are in poverty today than in 2000 and at 14%,

the county has the third highest rate in the country. (US Census Bureau 2013)

affordability the savings of “drive ‘til you qualify” are wiped out by rising transportation costs

aging suburbs: low/per acre tax revenue and high per capita infrastructure costs

Walkability + Multi-modal systems

Transit-Oriented Development

Road diets

Street Networks

Parking Districts

Car Sharing

retrofitting challenge:

Auto Dependency

From dead mall to green downtown

Belmar, Lakewood, CO: Continuum Partners; Elkus Manfredi Architects, Civitas Inc., VMWP

•2002-8 fiscal and economic impact on Lakewood of $207.2 million ($49.5 million in 2008 alone),

including a fiscal impact of $10.6 million

•9 acres of public space and parks including a 2.1 acre park, 1.1 acre plaza

•8 bus lines come through the new downtown

•2/3 complete in ‘09: 1.1 mil sf retail, .9mil sf office, 1300 residential units

From edge city sprawl to 430-acre BRT-extended TOD centered on boulevard

White Flint, N Bethesda MD: W.F. Ptrship, Montgomery Cty, Glatting Jackson, var designers

-new high-rise downtown over 20 years, $6-7 bil tax revenue, 10k residents – 25% affordable

From auto-oriented strip to hip, sustainable, pedestrian-oriented landscape

Rockville Pike, White Flint, N Bethesda, MD: White Flint Partnership, Montgomery County,

North Bethesda Market landscape architecture by Nelson Byrd Woltz

-

Urban acupuncture to establish walkable urbanism between strip malls

Merchant Square, Carmel, IN: Speck & Assoc’s, AECOM, Cripe Archts & Engrs

Photoz; G. Komar

From 5-lane arterial to 2-lane Main Street with multi-use parking Ramblas & solar

Lancaster, CA (pop 157k): CT/KDF Community Development Partners, Moule & Polyzoides Since revitalization started in 2009: $106mil in New Markets Tax Credits for redevelopment for local

entrepreneurs; 50 new businesses; 10% increase in downtown property values; 50% cut in traffic collisions

Importance of vision and political champions

Lancaster, CA: CT/KDF Community Development Partners, Moule & Polyzoides Republican Mayor since 2008 committed to Net Zero, positioning his city at the center of new energy economy

Equitable access: to transit, jobs,

parks, schools, and housing

Inclusionary zoning

Replacement units

Reinhabitation

The city as master developer

retrofitting challenge:

Equity and

Affordability

New Leaf Center Affordable Equity Partners Habitat for Humanity townhomes

Social services, incu- Lease to Purchase NSP- funded

bator kitchen, restau- Low-income tax credits

rant, classrooms, mtg

space, with apts abv.

3 funding sources: NPS3,

SPLOST, CHA loan.

From zombie subdivision to mixed-income TND: City as Master Developer

Walkers Bend, Covington, GA: Covington Redevelopment Authority

Bottom line: City’s investment made a profit, stabilized

property values and met needs for affordable housing

Affordable, dense infill gracefully transitions the commercial-residential seam

Cottages on Greene Street, East Greenwich, RI: 620 Main St Associates, Union Architects

Former auto-repair lot First proposal for affordable housing

Inward views to stormwater-catching court 15-units/acre maintains local scale at street

Civic Engagement

Share: Uber, Lyft, Airbnb

Tactical urbanism

Play

Gathering Spaces

“Missing middle” housing types

Welcome diversity

retrofitting challenge:

Social Capital

Updating the “L” strip mall as a “third place” with portals to the neighborhood

Lake Grove Shopping Center, Lake Oswego, OR: Eric Shoemaker Beam Development

From “back” to a new front to the neighborhood

Attract and retain 25-34 yr olds

Anti-corporate office, maker

space, & innovation districts

Healthy workspaces with daylight,

ventilation, and walkability

Update outtadate office parks and

sleepy suburbs with mixed uses

and housing

Reinhabit, redevelop, or regreen

the white elephants

retrofitting challenge:

Jobs

transit triggers infill of an office park

University Town Center, Hyattsville, MD Prince George’s Metro Center, Inc.; Parker Rodriguez, RTKL Associates, WDG Architecture

1980 2009 2011

from taxi distributor to small mixed-use TOD w daycare and container pool

TAXI, Riverfront North, Denver, CO: Zeppelin Development

Water Quality:

• Daylight culverted creeks

• Reconstruct wetlands

• Clean and control runoff

Too little water:

• Capture for reuse

• Conserve

Too much water:

• Regreen flood plains

• Blue/Green infrastructure/LID

• Pervious surface

• Hard and soft barriers

• Buildings and infrastructure

that can take a bath

• Planned retreat

retrofitting challenge:

Water

from mall parking lot to TOD with condos, senior housing, and daylit creek park

Northgate Urban Center, North Seattle, WA: LEED-ND pilot program

Thornton Place, Mithun Architects for Stellar Holdings & Lorig Associates

•Added 530 units of housing at net 96 units/acre (another 1800 coming?)

•Increased open space within the Northgate Urban Center by 50%

•Provided pedestrian links that shortened walking distances by 50% from several adjacent neighborhoods

Source: Dunham-Jones, Williamson 2011

2000

condos to

repce 200

apts?

from dead mall to mixed-use NORC with sr housing, grocery, hotel: zero

stormwater runoff and geothermal

Wayzata Bay Center, Wayzata, MN: City of Wayzata, Presbyterian Homes, LHB, DIIAP, InSite

The wetland site was drained for construction of the Bay Center mall in the sixties. In

addition to capturing all stormwater on site under pile-supported streets, the project paid

$129k for wetland credits to the Wayzata Wetland Bank to further protect the lake.

District Energy Systems

Waste Heat Capture

Peak Load Shaving with

renewables

Energy retrofits of existing

buildings

retrofitting challenge:

Energy

From 3-acre truck loading facility to urban park w/ 600 ton BTU geothermal source

Guthrie Green Urban Park, Tulsa, OK: OSU, SWA, Kinslow, Keith & Todd Architects

The $8M conversion of the 3-acre site in an emerging arts district received a $2.5M ARRA grant to

provide gardens, stage, pavilion and 120 wells to serve 120k of nearby non-profit users.

guthrie_green_

tulsa_02

From a park-n-ride to a high-design civic centre with geothermal district heating

Surrey Central City, Surrey, BC; Simon Frasier University, Bing Thom Architects, Inc

source: Dunham-Jones, Williamson, 2009

Library Classrooms above shopping mall

Phase 1: college classrooms built above mall, + new high rise

Auto-dependence

Affordability

Public Health

Social Capital

Jobs

Water

Energy

Waste

retrofitting challenge:

Layered solutions,

Performance

metrics

conclusions

Looking Ahead

Great transit is poised to eclipse

great schools as the prime factor

determining real estate value. The

communities that provide both

will be big winners

Connecting affordable housing to

affordable transportation is key

to growing participation in, and

expansion of, the economy

Surveys show more consensus

about what households don’t

want (suburbs where you drive

everywhere) than about what they

do want. The key is to provide a

range of choices

• Can Gwinnett County

redevelop its underperforming

commercial properties to

expand its lifestyle choices

beyond yesterday’s model?