Re-imagining Communities
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Pleasant Hill BART - Avalon Bay at Walnut Creek
The Pleasant Hill Station community is a new transit-oriented development (TOD) surrounding a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Station. As the Bay Area’s first mixed-use, urban development around a BART Station, Pleasant Hill is a model for other TODs in the region, and the nation. A 7-day urban design Charrette, attended by neighborhood residents, BART users, local business owners, government agencies, community leaders, and activists, highlighted the 9-month long project. The BART property, previously used as surface and structured parking for commuters, was freed up for development by adding to the existing parking structure. Complete build-out will include civic uses, ground-floor retail, townhomes, apartments, and three mixed-use 12-story buildings. Laurence was a partner of LCA Architects & Town Planners who were the leaders of the Charrette that established the plan, the codes, and the architectural character. Two mixed-use blocks and the plaza, which were all defined in the Charrette, were recently built (with architecture by MVE & Partners).
Location
Client
Jim Kennedy, Contra Costa Co. Redevelopment Agency (Laurence Qamar, Principal at LCA)
Type
Transit-Oriented Development, Commercial Strip Redevelopment
Olivia Beach
This compact, 12-acres neighborhood of 91 homes, a community pool house, and two parks tuck into a historic district of a coastal beach town. The nearby retail main street, high school, cinema, local theater, and bus transit is all within a short 5-minute walk. The community’s tree-lined ‘Skinny Streets’ and rear alleyways offer a network of pedestrian and bike-friendly ways through the neighborhood, to the two parks, and to the public beach stairway, all provided as amenities of the development. A broad range of house designs and craftsman details was created from inspirations of the finest traditional towns along the coast. Native plants and crushed oyster shell pathways along with the local vernacular housing settle the new neighborhood into its natural and built environment, bringing new and old together as one.
A Form-Based Code specifies that all the houses face the streets with broad front porches, and stoops. Rear alleyways access garages, which are all detached from the homes. Buyers have the choice of a single-car garage or upgrades to accessory units above one or two-car garages. With an average of 4,000 sq ft lots, the homes sit close to the sidewalks, encouraging vibrant social interaction between neighbors.
Location
Client
Casey Roloff, Current Development
Type
Suburban Neighborhood Infill, Urban Design Codes, Building Design
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
Olivia Beach
This compact, 12-acres neighborhood of 91 homes, a community pool house, and two parks tuck into a historic district of a coastal beach town. The nearby retail main street, high school, cinema, local theater, and bus transit is all within a short 5-minute walk. The community’s tree-lined ‘Skinny Streets’ and rear alleyways offer a network of pedestrian and bike-friendly ways through the neighborhood, to the two parks, and to the public beach stairway, all provided as amenities of the development. A broad range of house designs and craftsman details was created from inspirations of the finest traditional towns along the coast. Native plants and crushed oyster shell pathways along with the local vernacular housing settle the new neighborhood into its natural and built environment, bringing new and old together as one.
A Form-Based Code specifies that all the houses face the streets with broad front porches, and stoops. Rear alleyways access garages, which are all detached from the homes. Buyers have the choice of a single-car garage or upgrades to accessory units above one or two-car garages. With an average of 4,000 sq ft lots, the homes sit close to the sidewalks, encouraging vibrant social interaction between neighbors.
Location
Client
Casey Roloff, Current Development
Type
Suburban Neighborhood Infill, Urban Design Codes, Building Design
Click image to enlarge
Park Avenue Station Community
Laurence Qamar led the Urban Design for the future Park Avenue Station Community at the terminus of the new Milwaukie Light Rail corridor in the Portland Metro Region. His team produced bold new solutions for transforming an underperforming commercial strip into a new multi-way boulevard and parkway.
The study area, comprised of suburban neighborhoods within ½ mile of the station, is centered on Highway 99E, or McLoughlin Boulevard. McLoughlin is a typical 5-lane highway commercial strip lined by used car dealerships, strip clubs, trailer parks, a fraternal organization, and the once-famous Bomber Café and gas station from the heyday of the 1950s. In contrast to the highway corridor, historic homes on dead-end cul de sacs reside and 1/8 mile away next to a soon-to-be-transformed ‘rail to trail’ greenway.
To incentivize the redevelopment of underperforming commercial properties along the corridor, Laurence established a redevelopment vision working with citizens, planners, economists, and traffic engineers. He introduced bold strategies for transforming a 2,800’ portion of 99E, that would increase its value economically, socially, and ecologically.
Laurence emphasized that in order for commercial developers to build a new shop with doors and windows facing McLoughlin, there would need to be on-street parking to serve customers. With ODOT not permitting street parking, Laurence proposed a series of options for ‘place-making, or centers, which included new perpendicular local main streets, a multi-way boulevard, or the devolution of the lowest-performing retail portions of the strip into housing and parkway frontage. Each option is based on sound market and transportation analysis, as well as a bold stance on what it really takes to create a vibrant pedestrian-based boulevard on a previous highway strip. Currently, the multi-way boulevard is gaining serious support and interest within ODOT, and the community.
Location
Client
Clackamas County Planning Department, and Oregon Department of Transportation, Transportation Growth Management Grant
Type
Transit-oriented Development, Commercial Strip Retrofitting