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Greenmarket 1991 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Gold Medal
Greenmarket is a coalition of outdoor farmers markets bringing fresh, affordable food to New York City and supporting the revitalization of Union Square. The seasonal markets operate between one to three days a week at 18 different locations throughout the city to provide residents with inexpensive, high-quality products and produce from local family-owned farms. Greenmarket has also significantly contributed to improvements in and around Union Square Park, its largest and most successful market site.
The market program was launched by the New York Council on the Environment with support from the New York City Departments of Parks and Recreation and Transportation as a way to connect local consumers with locally grown fresh produce, support and sustain small farms, and encourage farmland preservation in nearby rural areas. A coupon program helps low-income residents enjoy market offerings, and some sites operate year-round.
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Brooklyn-Queens Greenway 1991 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The Brooklyn-Queens Greenway converted 40 miles of underused land into a linear park connecting neighborhoods and treasured New York City institutions. Stretching from Coney Island to Little Neck Bay, the 5,000-acre greenway and bicycle and pedestrian path links 13 parks and locations of historical, cultural and environmental significance including museums, lakes, botanical gardens, and the sites of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs.
The project was initiated in the mid-1980s by the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition and community members who began brainstorming about how to link some of the best environmental, educational, historical, and recreational resources in Brooklyn and Queens. Open year-round, the multi-purpose greenway is used by the four million residents of Brooklyn and Queens for a variety of activities. It has increased the quality of open, green spaces in the city and provides much needed recreational space to underserved communities.
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Ocean Drive Improvement Project 1991 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The Ocean Drive Improvement Project combined preservation and public-private development to revitalize Miami Beach’s historic Art Deco neighborhood. The 26-acre oceanfront historic district includes 15 city blocks with Art Deco hotels and apartment buildings and a new public park. The district has become a vital entertainment and tourist center, garnering international attention for its successful integration of residential, retail, and commercial reinvestment.
Completed in 1990, the project renewed interest and investment in a historic and architecturally significant section of Miami. A total of 28 historic buildings were rehabilitated, 50 new restaurants opened, and $4 million of public money was raised, including a $3 million bond issue that financed infrastructure improvements. The project’s success is the result of rigorous planning, zoning, and historic preservation regulations, physical improvements, fundraising, and promotional advertising.
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Roslindale Village Main Street 1991 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
Roslindale Village Main Street is a comprehensive, community-based revitalization program for a southwest Boston neighborhood business district. It was initiated in 1985 by Roslindale Village Main Street (RVMS), a nonprofit community group supported by the National Trust Main Street Urban Demonstration Program, which promotes the local business district as destination and community center through advocacy, events, and investments in the physical environment.
One of the first urban main street programs in the US, the RVMS project created an organizational framework for community outreach and engagement along with a master plan and programs for physical improvements that included the preservation of historic storefronts. The first three years saw over $5 million in new investments, including the rehabilitation of 43 commercial buildings and restoration of 33 storefronts and signage, and businesses and residents have benefited from improvements to streets, sidewalks, lighting, and public spaces. Nearly 30 new businesses opened in the village while old ones expanded, together creating over 132 new jobs. Meanwhile the RVMS keeps businesses and residents active and interacting with a year-round calendar of events including cleanup and recycling days, famers markets, and bingo.
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West Clinton Action Plan 1991 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The West Clinton Action Plan revitalized a low-income neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, improving housing and increasing community involvement and pride. REACH, a nonprofit community development organization which initiated the project in 1990, worked extensively with local residents to identify a target area and goals and develop and implement a plan for improvements that focused on owner-occupied and rental housing rehabilitation and community-strengthening programs.
The nearly $1.4 million project was financed with support from local government and financial institutions. It included the purchase and renovation of deteriorating and vacant structures in the southeast Portland Hosford Abernathy neighborhood, tree planting (carried out by neighborhood volunteers), and the creation of a mini-park. New infill housing was built in partnership with a community college construction class. The extremely inclusive and participatory process became a model for community planning in Portland neighborhoods.
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Greenmarket case study
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Brooklyn-Queens Greenway case study
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Ocean Drive Improvement Project case study
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Roslindale Village Main Street case study
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West Clinton Action Plan case study
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Greenmarket application
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Brooklyn-Queens Greenway application
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Ocean Drive Improvement Project application
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Roslindale Village Main Street application
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West Clinton Action Plan application
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Connections: Creating Urban Excellence 1991 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
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Sustaining Urban Excellence: Learning from the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence 1987-1993 The Rudy Bruner Award seeks to discover and celebrate outstanding urban places, while serving as a forum for debating urban issues and the nature of urban excellence. The projects presented in this book include the winners from he first award cycle in 1987 through 1993. While each of the winners represented innovation and success when they were recognized by the Rudy Bruner Award, time is the ultimate test of viability. As the Award proceeded it therefore became important to ask:
-How have these urban places withstood the test of time?
-How have they evolved in the face of changing circumstances?
-What do these places have to teach us when viewed as a whole?
In order to answer these questions, the Bruner Foundation, with assistance from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, undertook to revisit these finalists. This book documents the findings of those visits, and offers important observations about the challenge of sustaining urban excellence.
