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Roost Neighborhood

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This neighborhood of 18 homes is part of a larger mixed-use village. Optional designs for private yards compliment lifestyles; an emphasis on play, gardening, art, dining and/or entertainment are choices. Community facilities include pathways, a park with boardwalks, fire feature, overlooks, and dining areas set into an informal landscape and overlooking a wetland. Large drifts of grasses and colorful perennials will define the streetscape. The landscape will be punctuated with large specimen trees referencing remnants of the rural landscapes.

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New Directions & Perspectives

We are exploring creative place-making and addressing local employment, job creation and social enterprise strategies. Recent neighborhood plans integrate community and economic development including: • A craftsman district allowing shops in residential neighborhoods, • A local main street with prefabricated cottages for small businesses, • Incremental change with cottage district evolving to vertical mixed use, and • Partnerships and programs to improve access to healthcare, healthy food, employment and training opportunities. Our innovative plans for new communities are exploring lifestyle choices including: • Encouraging local professional and service business in homes and accessory buildings along a Main Street, • Creating community through inclusion of community uses clustered around a rural town square, • Retaining farm heritage through community sponsored agriculture program, and • Providing seniors high quality of life. The neighborhood will include mix of home and care options, opportunities to actively engage in neighborhood based recreation, education and social enterprise programs. Illustrations by Jim Collins.

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Pendleton Avenue – JBLM, WA*

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A multidisciplinary consulting team was retained to address the site and architectural resources along Pendleton Avenue in the Fort Lewis Garrison Historic District on Joint Base Lewis McChord. The team explored corridor and neighborhood urban design strategies. The plan recommends an open space strategy and adaptive reuse of historic structures including locating the non-commissioned officers program into historic buildings and reuse of buildings fronting Pendleton into offices and commercial services to support nearby administrative offices. *AECOM project.

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Montana Avenue Historic District

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A property owner-initiated master plan for the original Town Site Historic District resulted in the formation of a special improvement district to implement streetscape improvements along Montana Avenue, the renovation of the historic Northern Pacific Railroad Depot as a community center, and significant private investment by private property owners in retail, restaurants and loft housing. The investment transformed Montana Avenue into one of the most desirable and active districts in downtown Billings, MT.

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Winslow Tomorrow*

Sandy Fischer directed Winslow Tomorrow, a citizen-driven urban design initiative. The project included a “greenprint” for protection, preservation and enhancement of cultural and environmental assets, as well as a “blueprint” to guide sustainable development. The plan recommends waterfront, park and open space acquisitions and enhancements. The “blueprint” identifies infill opportunities, parking and circulation changes, sustainable development standards, and addresses affordable housing and open space conservation through incentive-based codes. Sketches by Bill Johnson. *Completed at City of Bainbridge.

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Integrating Habitats*

“Growing Together” is an award winning response to the Integrating Habitats competition sponsored by Metro, a regional planning agency. The proposal responds to the challenge of integrating Oak Savannah habitat into an established single family neighborhood by addressing the spatial design and policy frameworks.This is a concrete example of innovative design strategies that focus on incremental land use transformation through increased diversity, conservation and human scaled solutions. The plan illustrates how a block, neighborhood, community, landscape could regenerate; becoming more environmentally, culturally and economically sustainable and at the same time provide higher quality habitat, house more people, require less infrastructure and consume fewer resources. *AECOM competition.