Friends of The Underline, together with Miami-Dade Transit and Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department, have selected a team led by James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) to develop a vision and master plan for Miami-Dade County’s planned new feature park, The Underline. HR&A is thrilled to be on the team, which was selected from a pool of 19 applicants, and looks forward to collaborating with JCFO to transform this underutilized corridor into an iconic linear park and urban trail.

The future vision for the 10-mile Underline corridor, which runs below the Miami Metrorail from the Miami River to Dadeland South Station, is to create a vibrant linear park that will enhance connectivity, mobility, and recreation for hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors. HR&A will work with JCFO to frame a vision for how The Underline may activate surrounding real estate to encourage future development at key nodes. Our work will include a high-level review of soft development sites along The Underline corridor, identifying key opportunity areas and collaborating with JCFO to illustrate the potential for development at key locations along the corridor. HR&A will also examine potential public-private implementation concepts, framing a plan for successful implementation and long-term success.
For more information on the project, visit www.theunderline.org.

HR&A is proud to participate in the APA National Planning Conference in Seattle, Washington. The annual conference brings together planners, design professionals, and urban advocates from around the world to discuss the development of vital communities by advocating excellence in planning, promoting education and citizen empowerment, and providing the tools and support necessary to meet the challenges of growth and change.

HR&A Partner Paul Silvern will participate on a panel titled Public-Private Partnerships and Park Development on Tuesday April 21st. This session will cover the evolution of Public-Private Partnerships (P3’s) from the 1980s through today; the decision making process and impact of P3s on park planning, design and development; the planner’s role in P3 models; and the future of collaborative governance in park systems. P3s have emerged in the last few decades to support urban parks as public dollars have decreased. They are increasingly sophisticated – some taking on comprehensive management and operations in addition to fundraising – and bring much-needed financial resources. They reflect the complexity and challenges of urban park operations today that require new approaches to managing nature in densely populated areas, mitigating the effects of climate change, addressing diverse user needs, programming parks in communities at all socioeconomic levels, creating new sources of revenue, and working across sectors such as water, transportation, public health and human services departments. Paul will highlight our work on Brooklyn Bridge Park as an example of linking parks to adjacent development as a long-term funding strategy.

HR&A Partner Amitabh Barthakur will be participating on a panel titled Planning Retail that Can Really Happen on Sunday April 19th. Recognizing that retail space can activate and enliven the surrounding streetscape, planners often look to incorporate ground floor retail into their planning efforts. Oftentimes however, specific spaces are designated for retail uses without first taking into account market demand, area demographics, retail/restaurant operational requirements, project financial returns, conflicting ownership objectives and public sector incentives. This panel will shed light on what today’s retailers and developers are looking for when it comes to parking requirements, store layouts, public sector incentives and other key criteria. It will also highlight the ways in which those requirements need to fit within often conflicting municipal regulations. The panel will feature store designers who have worked with a diverse array of clients, as well as developers and economic development professionals that have lead retail revitalization efforts. Amitabh will talk about how market and demographic data can be best interpreted in a manner that relates to retailer requirements, can manage stakeholder expectations, and can lead to a retail tenanting strategies that can actually be implemented.

We hope you can join us at APA in Seattle!

In November 2014, the Open Society Foundations retained HR&A to manage a wide-reaching citizen engagement effort for Talking Transition DC – an experiment in innovative civic engagement, policy, and grassroots organizing centered around the mayoral transition. In November 2014, voters elected Muriel Bowser as the next mayor of Washington, DC. Shortly thereafter, Talking Transition DC kicked off. Talking Transition D.C. built on the success of Talking Transition NYC, which followed the November 2013 election of Mayor Bill de Blasio in New York City.

Talking Transition D.C. sought to transform the typically insular, closed-door process that occurs between Election Day and Inauguration Day into an opportunity for broad civic discourse, giving Washingtonians a substantive opportunity to shape the agenda of Mayor Bowser. Talking Transition DC used a variety of strategies to accomplish this, including a field survey, a full-day town meeting, and a series of policy papers.

In partnership with DC Vote, DC Working Families, National Institute for Civil Discourse, and the Urban Institute, HR&A designed and oversaw the Talking Transition Survey. In a series of twenty-three questions, the survey asked District residents how they felt about a range of issues including housing, jobs, education, and internet access. Washingtonians had the opportunity to say whether things were “good,” “bad,” or “ok,” and whether things were “getting better,” “staying the same,” or “getting worse.” In December 2014 and January 2015, a team of 20 DC Working Families canvassers hit the streets to find out how Washingtonians felt about the most pressing issues facing the District during this time of transition.
Over 8,500 Washingtonians made their voices heard, and the results are clear:

• Over 45 percent of survey participants said that they had not voted in the 2014 mayoral election –demonstrating that Talking Transition engaged Washingtonians who do not always participate in the political process;
• Residents across DC were most concerned with housing affordability and social services;
• Residents in Southeast DC tended to respond more negatively than those living in Northwest.

The report, along with the results of the town hall and policy papers, were presented to Mayor Bowser in early March. To read the report, and see the other materials produced from Talking Transition, DC please visit http://talkingtransitiondc.com. Read more in the Washington Post, The Washington Informer, and DCist.

HR&A is proud to participate in the Greater & Greener 2015: Innovative Parks and Vibrant Cities Conference in San Francisco, California. The annual conference brings together more than 1,000 park leaders, planners, design professionals, and urban park advocates from around the world to discuss urban park issues from health, public education, livability and social cohesion, to economic development and urban resilience.

HR&A Partner, Candace Damon, will be participating on a panel titled Collecting Data, Informing Decisions on Monday April 13th. This panel will focus on how technology is serving socially and environmentally vulnerable communities. Candace will highlight our recent work with the Open Society Foundation on Talking Transition in NYC and in Washington D.C. where we transformed the typically insular, closed-door process that occurs between Election Day and Inauguration Day into an opportunity for broad civic discourse. She will also discuss our project for the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in California. For the City of Santa Monica, we helped design and develop a new online public engagement tool that solicits input from citizens and stakeholders to reimagine the future of the Civic Auditorium and its site through a user-friendly, online interface.

HR&A Director, Elissa Hoagland Izmailyan, will participate on a panel titled Earning Income with the Entrepreneurial Park on Tuesday April 14th, where she will discuss strategies for creating financially sustainable parks that not only generate revenue, but also contribute to the economic health of their communities. Elissa will highlight recent work on Hance Park in Phoenix, for the Green Line Parks and Commons Initiative in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and on Shelby Farms Park in Memphis.

HR&A is a strong supporter of the Greater & Greener Conference and the City Parks Alliance.

How can a park be both engaging public space and a driver of economic, environmental and social activity within the local community? High Performing Public Spaces (HPPS) perform these functions to provide a rewarding experience and a constructive model for new park development. At the 2015 Park Pride Conference, HR&A Vice-Chairman Candace Damon and Director Connie Chung sat down with David Barth from Barth Associates, and Erica Madsen from Foresite Group to discuss the unique qualities of HPPSs and the different factors that influence their planning and design.

Speaking to our innovative work on The Lawn on D in Boston, Connie highlighted the importance of High Performing Public Spaces in jump-starting a neighborhood. The Lawn on D is a 2.7 acre outdoor space in the heart of Boston’s burgeoning Innovation District. Sitting between D Street and the Boston Convention and Exhibit Center, it’s surrounded by office buildings, hotels, warehouses, and a small number of new multifamily residences. To frame the Lawn on D as Boston’s go-to destination for leisure and play, HR&A worked with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Sasaki Associates, and Chris Wangro to implement the Five Building Blocks of Programming:

Since its launch in in 2014 The Lawn on D has hosted several successful events and installations including Swing Time, Punkin Fest, and the largest ice maze in the United States, positioning itself as a destination for recreation, leisure, refreshment, and innovative programming by employing this programming strategy.

See HR&A’s presentation here and learn more about Park Pride here.

The Long Island Index, a project of the Rauch Foundation, recently released Long Island’s Future: Economic Implications of Today’s Choices, an HR&A study that highlights the impact of Long Island-wide initiatives that tackle the region’s most pressing socioeconomic challenges. HR&A’s study illuminates the effects of targeted policies that leverage Long Island’s existing assets and re-orient the region towards sustainable prosperity.

Using complex economic modeling, HR&A found that socioeconomic trends including the loss of young workers and families, scarce employment options in high-paying fields, and high-cost housing, combine to dampen the region’s future prospects. Without targeted intervention, stagnating economic conditions threaten to erode the quality of life on Long Island.

HR&A explored the impact of a coordinated strategy to foster the growth of the area’s burgeoning biomedical cluster and increase multifamily housing production in downtown locations. HR&A’s concluded that implementing this strategy would attract up to 138,000 new residents and create up to 73,000 new jobs by 2040. Through these synchronized efforts, Long Island could gain up to $15.1 billion in gross regional product (GRP) and $600 million in new tax revenues in 2040.

While these results are impressive, they won’t come easy. The key to aligning Long Island’s future lies in the uncompromised link between the two policy recommendations: creating jobs through a biomedical cluster and expanding housing opportunities. These strategies must be implemented simultaneously, and in coordination with the enlargement of regional transit capacity, set forth in the firm’s 2014 study of the Long Island Rail Road Main Line Third Track. United forces to enhance regional connectivity, foster cross-sector collaboration, and create high density downtown living opportunities hold promise to revitalize Long Island’s economy. Developing multifamily housing in the region’s downtowns would create new space to support a growing biomedical workforce while preserving existing neighborhoods and open spaces. Cluster-based economic development strategies can catalyze the growth of Long Island’s burgeoning biomedical industry, provided adequate conditions to attract and retain a talented workforce.

The findings presented in Long Island’s Future continue to ignite and inform regional conversation about the actions Long Island should take today to enhance its future prosperity. Regional groups, including Accelerate Long Island and the Long Island Association, have pledged to incubate and support emerging biomedical firms as they seek opportunities for collaboration and funding on Long Island. Across Nassau and Suffolk counties, local politicians and lawmakers are rethinking municipal zoning policies that discourage multifamily residential development in downtowns. Within the last year, zoning boards in Long Beach and Babylon have approved proposals to construct dense, multifamily housing. Communities including Westbury, Patchogue, Ronkonkoma, and Rockville Center continue to explore integrating new land uses to benefit local downtowns as a part of the Long Island Index’s Build a Better Burb: ParkingPLUS Design Challenge.

Several national and regional media outlets, including the Altantic’s CityLab, Planetizen, Newsday, the Long Island Press, the Long Island Business News, and the Long Island Herald, have reported on the findings of Long Island’s Future. To read the full report, follow HR&A Partner, Shuprotim Bhaumik’s editorial published in the Long Island Business News, and join the discussion about Long Island’s trajectory, please visit http://www.longislandindex.org/.

In February 2015, the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative, which includes the National Resource Network (the Network), was selected as a finalist by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation for its annual Innovations in American Government Award. SC2 also received a “Bright Idea” designation and joined the Ash Center’s Government Innovator’s Network. HR&A is proud to have helped design and implement the National Resource Network with its consortium partners, Enterprise Community Partners, Public Financial Management, International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and the NYU Wagner School.

The National Resource Network is a key component of the SC2 Initiative, which was launched in 2011 as a partnership between the federal government and mayors of distressed cities around the nation that have faced long term economic challenges. The Network was developed as a responsive and flexible vehicle to deliver high quality professional technical assistance to cities that need it most. With over 270 eligible cities around the United States, the National Resource Network has begun providing targeted assistance from coast-to-coast. The goals of Network projects are to create long-lasting economic improvements through implementation-focused projects covering a wide range of economic development challenges.

In HUD’s recent press release for the SC2 Initiative’s nomination, Secretary Castro highlighted the importance of developing new programs to empower local communities to build success.

“We’re living in a Century of Cities, a time when people around the world—including here in the United States— are urbanizing at a breathtaking pace,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “The SC2 initiative is empowering local leaders with new tools to maximize federal investments, spark economic activity and expand opportunity for their residents. I congratulate the SC2 team, and all of its partners, for being selected as a finalist. I’m confident that this effort will continue to help build cities poised for future success.”

As part of the National Resource Network, HR&A is leading engagements in Meridian, MS and Kansas City, KS. Both cities are focused on revitalizing their downtowns. HR&A is working closely with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County in Kansas City to create a new Healthy Campus, anchored by a grocery store and new community center. This development is part of a larger effort to improve the health of residents. Building from the initial work completed by the City, community, and Gould Evans, a local planning firm, HR&A helping translate the vision for a Healthy Campus articulated in a plan into reality.

In Meridian, HR&A partnered with Perkins+Will, an international planning firm, to create a strategic redevelopment plan for the creation of a Health District adjacent to Downtown Meridian. The goal of the work is to provide a strategy for growing the local medical cluster, attract private investment to the area, create new jobs for city residents, and support the continued revitalization of Meridian’s city center. Under the National Resource Network’s “311 Assistance” program, HR&A is also working with the City of Lancaster, CA and the Antelope Valley Healthcare District to assess the merits of a medical and wellness district in that city, and strategies for procuring needed professional services to implement it.

HR&A President Eric Rothman Speaks at New Jersey Future’s Annual Redevelopment Forum

The New Jersey Future’s Annual Redevelopment Forum brings more than 500 leaders from both the public and private sectors to discuss how New Jersey can re-use infrastructure, take advantage of historically strategic locations, maintain and improve its communities and preserve its open spaces.

In March 2015, Eric Rothman participated on a panel titled “Redevelopment in an Era of Risk”, which focused on maintaining a strong momentum of redevelopment while also planning for the damaging effects of climate change and other natural disasters. Eric highlighted HR&A’s work for HUD’s Rebuild By Design Competition in Hoboken, a UN Role Model City for Resilience that is in the process of rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy and planning for future flood risk.

HR&A found that an investment in a comprehensive urban water strategy in Hoboken, which includes a mix of infrastructure improvements; a network of porous, greenspaces throughout the city; and new zoning policy, would generate significant value for the City and its businesses, institutions, and residents by preserving current assets; reducing future defense and emergency services costs; enhancing amenities for the community; and sustaining long term growth. OMA’s urban water plan Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge, which received funding from HUD, would incorporate innovative a mixture of funding strategies through public investment, value capture, and public-private partnerships with flood insurance providers to support project implementation in a virtuous cycle of development, value creation, and resiliency.

Learn more about this year’s Forum here and view Eric’s presentation here.