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The Times Square 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Gold Medal
The Times Square in New York City transformed a dilapidated midtown hotel into a large-scale supportive housing development for people in need. Between 1991 and 1994, Common Ground Community HDFC, Inc. spearheaded the renovation of the infamous single-room occupancy hotel in Times Square into 652 secure, single-occupancy units with affordable rents for formerly homeless individuals, low-income adults, the elderly and mentally ill, and people with HIV/AIDS. The ground floor offers commercial space for three retail operations that support job training and hiring programs.
The project combines excellence in design with an innovative housing model, social services, and job training, and it has helped stabilized a key corner in the ongoing revitalization of the Times Square district. Programming is designed to help tenants foster stability and independence, and the project demonstrates the feasibility of developing high-quality, cost-effective, large-scale affordable housing.
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Cleveland Historic Warehouse District 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The Cleveland Historic Warehouse District is an adaptive reuse project transforming vacant industrial and office buildings into residential and commercial space. The project was a response to the city’s demolition of the neighborhood in the 1960s-1970s, when more than half of the district’s historic structures were torn down and replaced with parking lots. Residents organized the Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation of Cleveland in time to preserve the oldest building in the area. The organization moved on to preserve many more important buildings, adapting them to create mixed-use and market-rate housing to entice the middle class to return to Cleveland.
The revitalization of the area includes retail shops, restaurants, jazz clubs, and commercial tenants in the heart of Cleveland next to the financial district. With a critical mass of 1,500 residents, the project balances preservation with new development and proves that they can be combined successfully to revitalize a district.
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Project Row Houses 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
Project Row Houses transformed 22 abandoned, historic shotgun-style houses in Houston into art galleries, subsidized housing, and community support programs. The project preserves the landmark buildings while revitalizing the city’s Third Ward community and celebrating the cultural heritage of one of Houston’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. Founded by artists and community activists, the project sees art as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization, youth education, and community engagement. The complex includes eight houses for art installations, seven affordable housing units for single mothers, a center for performances, a day care center and after-school program, empowerment programs, and a community garden.
Project Row Houses united members of the community who joined together to design, organize, and acquire funding for the multi-layered project. It offers a national model and can serve as an example for how other inner-city locations can combine the use of local historic structures, art produced by the local community, and social assistance programs to address community needs.
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Center in the Square 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
Center in the Square repurposed a 1914 warehouse in Roanoke, Virginia’s historic farmers market to house and support the local arts community. The restored warehouse is home to the West Virginia Foundation for the Arts and Sciences and houses the Arts Museum of Western Virginia, the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke Valley History Museum, and the Science Museum of Western Virginia. By bringing together these cultural entities in a rent-free space and encouraging community input, Center in the Square has created a new cultural and educational destination in Roanoke and spurred revitalization downtown.
A patron of the arts, Center in the Square provides housing for arts and science organizations free of charge and offers marketing and other support services to tenants. By centralizing arts and science programs, the project gives residents, tourists, and surrounding schools easy access to invaluable cultural and educational resources.
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Hismen Hin-nu Terrace 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
Hismen Hin-Nu (Sun Gate Terrace) is a mixed-use development in Oakland, California, with 92 units of low-income housing and 14,000 square feet of retail space. The project turned an abandoned supermarket site known as a haven for drug dealers into a safe, vibrant mixed-use space. Local contractors were used throughout the process, and the resulting complex has become a local landmark, helping to create a sense of place in a once-derelict neighborhood.
The project celebrates the cultural and ethnic diversity of the area with multi-cultural art motifs throughout the residential and retail development. The design is based upon historic California architectural motifs, and the varying unit configurations help accommodate the diverse heritage of its residents. Community members were involved in multiple workshops throughout the design process. The retail area includes a market hall with both indoor and outdoor market space to encourage engagement with the community. Hismen Hin-nu is an exemplary small-scale community development project that emphasizes a participatory planning process and a model for racial and ethnic cooperation.
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The Times Square case study
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Center in the Square case study
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Cleveland Historic Warehouse District case study
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Hismen Hin-nu Terrace case study
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Project Row Houses case study
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The Times Square application
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Cleveland Historic Warehouse District application
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Project Row Houses application
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Center in the Square application
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Hismen Hin-nu Terrace application
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Visions of Urban Excellence: 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
