Rudy Bruner Award Collection

Items

• The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center
  2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Gold Medal The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center in downtown Dallas is a shelter and transitional housing complex offering comprehensive services to homeless people. The $8 million, 750,000-square-foot center goes beyond simply providing shelter and services to offer comfort and a sense of place in an LEED-certified repurposed warehouse designed as a safe and dignified refuge. The six-building campus-style complex provides day shelter, emergency night shelter, and transitional housing and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Dedicated to eradicate chronic homelessness by providing “housing first,” the Bridge offers a range of services including healthcare, mental health and substance abuse services, employment assistance, laundry facilities, library and computer access, and three meals each day. The center encircles outdoor courtyards, reinforcing connection to nature and building community while creating security for the surrounding neighborhood.
• Brooklyn Bridge Park
  2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal The Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre sustainable waterfront park that revitalized 1.3 acres of Brooklyn, New York’s post-industrial East River shoreline. Stretching from Atlantic Avenue in the south passing under the Brooklyn Bridge to Jay Street north of the Manhattan Bridge, the long, narrow site offers sweeping views of New York Harbor and lower Manhattan. The park’s six piers offer diverse recreational opportunities including soccer fields, basketball courts, playgrounds, lawns, and a greenway for walking and biking. The park embraces the river as its reason for existence and incorporates pebbled beaches, a salt marsh, a boating ramp, and calm waters for kayaking and canoes. Designed to be both financially and ecologically sustainable, the $16 million project is “the ultimate recycled park.” The benches throughout the park, for example, were made from wood salvaged from a demolished warehouse and constructed in Brooklyn woodshops. Half a million visitors or more attend the park’s many free programs, from movies and live performances to dance classes and history lectures. The project succeeds in transforming a derelict space into a truly democratic and sustainable playground.
• Civic Space Park
  2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal Civic Space Park brings diverse community members together in a sustainable open space shared by Arizona State University (ASU) and residents of downtown Phoenix. The place was named for its intention to create a civic amenity, not just a public park, where local residents and office workers interact with university students. This goal was embodied in the design and development process, which was the result of a public-private partnership between the city and ASU as part of a larger plan to expand ASU facilities and revitalize downtown. The 2.77-acre site sits in the heart of a downtown district that was underdeveloped and pocketed with blight. The $34 million park features extensive lawns, shaded areas, performance venues, and a restored historic building with spaces for civic, educational, and social meetings. Environmentally conscious elements include photo-voltaic panels on shade structures, permeable paving, underground retention tanks for storm drainage, energy-efficient lighting, and large-scale tree planting to ensure that within 10 years 70% of the park will be shaded by trees. Fountains and sculptures—including the park’s signature piece, which “floats” above the park and is illuminated at night—add to the park’s draw, and the project has helped stimulate considerable development in the area.
• Gary Comer Youth Center and College Prep
  2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal The Gary Comer Youth Center and College Prep provide educational and recreational services to underserved youth in a 13.5-acre campus in Grand Crossing, Chicago. The expansive 80,000-square-foot youth center houses educational and recreational facilities for after-school programs while the 45,000-square-foot college prep building is a full-time high school for community residents. The bold colors and distinctive lines of the buildings serve as inviting landmarks and beacons of hope for children in the blighted Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. Inside the campus, transparency within the buildings and open courtyards emphasize a shared sense of community and responsibility that is a foundation of the academic programming. The project began when Land’s End founder Gary Comer returned to the neighborhood with an offer to help the elementary school he graduated from in 1942. His vision grew from funding equipment and building repairs to creating a youth center that would provide much-needed space for after school and educational programs. He hosted monthly breakfasts to assess community needs, including the need to create permanent space for the champion South Shore Drill Team, whose success has had a positive impact on local youth. The drill team, arts and dance, and urban gardening were among the core set of programs when the center opened.
• The Sante Fe Railyard Redevelopment
  2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal The Santa Fe Railyard is a community-led redevelopment integrating a historic rail line, park, and commercial, residential, and arts space. The 50-acre, $127 million project includes 37 acres of redeveloped commercial, cultural, and live/work space and 13 acres of parklands, a formal plaza, and a half-mile bike/walkway preserved by a conservation easement that ensures their use as public space in perpetuity. In the early planning stages, the number one desire expressed by citizens for the proposed railyard development was to keep the railroad running, and the historic train depot renovation extends operations and encourages use of public transit. The redevelopment design captures the aesthetic of the historic rail line, incorporating a rugged, industrial look that honors the history of the railyard and provides contrast to the surrounding Pueblo Revival architectural style. The Railyard’s focus on accessible community space allows Santa Fe’s diverse mix of residents to meet and interact with each other in a center of social, cultural, and economic activity. More than two decades in the making, the project was a collaborative effort informed by community activism and a commitment to protecting the natural and architectural beauty of the district. Economic and environmental sustainability and affordability were also priorities, and the project offers reduced rents to existing community-based nonprofits to help maintain the vitality of the deeply rooted neighborhood.
• The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center case study
• Brooklyn Bridge Park case study
• Civic Space Park case study
• Gary Comer Youth Center and College Prep case study
• The Santa Fe Railyard Redevelopment case study
• The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center application
• Civic Space Park application
• Gary Comer Youth Center and College Prep application
• The Sante Fe Railyard Redevelopment application
• Brooklyn Bridge Park application
• Partnering Strategies for the Urban Edge: 2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence