In June, CNU Tampa Bay had the opportunity to join forces with the Tampa Heights Civic Association to help the citizens of Tampa Heights envision the future of Franklin Street and the Tampa Heights neighborhood. The Visioning Workshop, organized and led by CNU Tampa Bay, was attended by residents and business owners alike, as members of the community who are working together to reinvigorate their neighborhood. It was the first step in the Build a Better Block Project that will be concluded in January 2015.
The Build a Better Block Project is a “demonstration tool that acts as a living charrette so that communities can actively engage” in the future of a place. The Build a Better Block has been used as a tool across the country to help redeveloping communities experience the possibilities for change in their neighborhood. A project typically involves a temporary redesign of the street that enables multimodal transportation and placemaking while increasing economic development. In January, we’ll be hitting the streets with other urban design, planning, and community organizations to demonstrate the future of Franklin Street as a vibrant and walkable neighborhood center for the Tampa Heights neighborhood. Over one weekend, fun, exciting, and interactive, temporary installations will be installed along Franklin Street that will give an insight into Franklin Street’s potential as a “complete, livable street.”
Examples of temporary “tactical urbanism” installations
Before we jump to the fun stuff, it’s important that these temporary installations represent the permanent changes that the community envisions. To do that we had neighborhood residents participate in a series of exercises to help direct and define a unified vision. Visioning, visual preference, map, and street section exercises gave a variety of opportunity to gather the DNA of Franklin Street’s future.
Visioning Boards
Visual Preference Surveys
Street Section exercises
CNU Tampa Bay will be taking these results, and with The Urban Charrette and Tampa Heights Civic Association, we’ll create a window into Franklin Street’s future. Check back here or sign up to our email list here to stay up to date with the next steps of the Build a Better Block project in Tampa.
A CNU-FL event in the Tampa Bay Area.
CNU Tampa Bay 