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Portland Streetcar Project 2005 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Gold Medal
The Portland Streetcar Project reused abandoned railyards to create a state-of-the-art double track streetcar system linking five districts in Portland, Oregon. The streetcar line creates a circulatory loop linking the east and west neighborhoods across the Willamette River and flanks the spine of four parks and mixed-use neighborhoods. The result of a successful public-private partnership, the project serves several high-density areas, helping to reduce auto trips and delivering safe and cost-effective transit services.
Originally started by the city to connect abandoned rail yards and a brownfield site to acres of vacant industrial land at the opposite end of downtown Portland, the Portland Streetcar project now connects a hospital, cultural district, retail center, and the regional transit system. In addition to reclaiming a 70-acre brownfield site, this project spurred $1.4 billion in private and institutional investment for both residential and non-residential uses. Beyond serving as a highly effective mode of transportation, the project is a model for uniting disconnected parts of a city and providing incentive for new development.
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Lower Town Artist Relocation Program 2005 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The Lower Town Artist Relocation Program rehabilitates historic buildings and encourages artists nationwide to relocate to the Paducah, Kentucky, neighborhood. The program is part of an effort to increase home ownership and property values, and the city offers incentives for the artists to live and work in the city. Historic homes are offered at affordable rates, and artists have access to funding from a local bank for additional restoration as well as rehabilitated retail space for art galleries and storefront real estate. The infill of vacant lots creates additional housing opportunities and helps combat urban sprawl, and the project prioritizes hiring local residents for rehabilitation and construction projects.
The program contributes significantly to the revitalization of a blighted historic neighborhood, strengthens the creative economy of Paducah, and creates a renewed residential community in the downtown. It offers an innovative approach to community revitalization and has become a national model for using the arts for economic development.
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Heidelberg Project 2005 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
Detroit’s Heidelberg Project is a series of open air art installations using art to inspire community change and revitalize an endangered east side neighborhood. The project’s mission is to build bridges between groups of people and to heal individuals and communities through the creative process while beautifying and preserving the community. The project includes a variety of art works, three art education programs, and space for a visiting artist. Despite partial demolition by the city on two occasions, the rebuilt Heidelberg Project is now an award-winning site and the third largest tourist destination in Detroit, attracting a diverse group of visitors from around the world.
Excellent design and aesthetics are top priorities of the project, which aims to save the neighborhood from abandonment by helping renovate the predominately low-income community. The project serves as a symbol of hope in the face of the despair that often accompanies blighted communities. It demonstrates the impact that one inspired artist can have on an entire city and the transformative power of his art, which punctuates the urban landscape with an element of surprise and offers an innovative model for transforming blighted communities.
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Fruitvale Village 2005 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The Fruitvale Village in Oakland, California, is a 257,000-square-foot mixed-use transit village providing mixed-income housing and community services. Built on former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) parking lots by the nonprofit Unity Council, the village includes a pedestrian street and plaza, a retail-lined connector between a BART station and the neighborhood, 47 units of mixed-income housing, 114,000 square feet of community services, 38,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurants, and a 150-car parking garage. A health clinic offers a variety of medical and dental services, and a public library and senior center round out the village. The project strengthens existing institutions and revitalizes the neighborhood aesthetically, economically, and socially, catalyzing neighborhood revitalization and contributing the local economy by providing a stable source of jobs and income.
The village offers a bold vision for transit-oriented development and responsiveness to community needs. It is impressive in the inclusive process conducted by the Unity Council and the creation of a new public outdoor space that celebrates ethnic and community identity.
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Downtown Silver Spring 2005 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal
The Downtown Silver Spring in Silver Spring, Maryland, is a 22-acre mixed-use suburban downtown revitalization initiative. Developed from Maryland’s Smart Growth policies, the project represents the ideal “first ring” suburb. It is the result of a public-private partnership and the creation of retail, entertainment, office, and public spaces and multi-family housing units, as well as four vibrant, revitalized main streets downtown that are safe and attractive for pedestrians.
Totaling $1.3 billion in investment, the revitalization has resulted in more than one million square feet of retail space including movie theaters and restaurants in a restored historic Art Deco building. The American Film Institute and the world headquarters for Discovery Communications are housed in newly developed office spaces. Located adjacent to a Metro stop, the project provides a transit-oriented model of redevelopment in a suburb serving a diverse population.
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Portland Streetcar Project case study
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Downtown Silver Spring case study
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Fruitvale Village case study
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Heidelberg Project case study
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Lower Town Artist Relocation Program case study
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Portland Streetcar Project application
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Lower Town Artist Relocation Program application
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Heidelberg Project application
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Fruitvale Village application
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Downtown Silver Spring application
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Reinventing Downtown: 2005 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
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Creative Community Building: 2003 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
