Doug Suisman joins key Hartford leaders on WNPR to talk about the ongoing efforts to revitalize downtown Hartford, through the efforts of the State of Connecticut, the City of Hartford, business interests, and cultural institutions, including the iQuilt Partnership:
Read MoreThe new street furnishings designed by Suisman for Santa Monica’s famed Third Street Promenade were unanimously approved today by the Santa Monica City Council. The designs have been developed under the leadership of Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. A pilot project will move ahead at the corner of the Promenade and Wilshire Boulevard. It is expected to be completed by summer of 2014.
Read MoreOur specialization in the architecture of walking means we are keenly interested in walking systems that extend above or below traditional street-level and sidewalks and crosswalks. Minneapolis and Calgary have extensive elevated walking systems (Calgary calls theirs the “Plus Fifteen” system, or 15 feet above the sidewalk), and many cities have bits and pieces of such systems in the form of “skybridges” which connect buildings over public streets – Hong Kong has some very interesting examples. I’ll be posting on Calgary’s system soon, since I happened to visit there shortly after visiting Houston, which has perhaps the world’s most extensive underground pedestrian system, the “Tunnels.” The interconnected system runs more than 6 miles, an impressive achievement, and the map looks like a subway system, with multiple routes and transfer points. When Texans decide on something, they don’t hold back!
Read MoreThe board of Downtown Santa Monica Inc. reviewed the final designs for the Third Street Promenade streetscape improvements and unanimously approved moving ahead on the pilot program to install key elements at the corner of the Promenade and Wilshire Boulevard.
Read MoreSuisman Urban Design organized and led a field trip to the historic El Pueblo de Los Angeles for the third graders of Canyon Charter School in Santa Monica. A day-long expedition, the tour began at the Southwest Museum Rail Station on the Gold Line. After riding the train into Union Station and touring the adjoining facilities, the tour travelled toward the Plaza itself. There, students enjoyed learning about historic sites like the Avila Adobe while broadening their observational skills through sketching their surroundings. The field trip was praised as informative and fun for students and parents alike.
This field trip also serves as a protoype educational program being developed for permanent use on the Pasaje De La Plaza Project. The Pasaje would link Union Station and Fort Moore Memorial through a newly renovated pedestrian walkway. Passing through La Plaza and the soon to be constructed Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the Pasaje would also feature multimedia exhibits with historic infomation. Ultimately, the Pasaje will continue southward to the Civic Park and Music Center. Suisman Urban Design is part of the design team for both the Pasaje Project and La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
Read MoreFollowing the successful completion of its master plan study for First Street in downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, Suisman Urban Design and its partners Rios Clementi Hale Studios and Campbell & Campbell are poised to begin the next stage of the project in early 2007. The next phase will involve implementation of certain pieces of the master plan, and the development of new city standards to ensure design compliance over the long term. Project Restore, the non-profit arm of the City of Los Angeles which led the renovation of City Hall, is again leading this important revitalization effort. Funding participants include the Federal government through the office of Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard; MTA; and the Community Redevelopment Agency, Planning Department and Transportation Department of the City of Los Angeles.
Read MoreProject Restore announced that the team of Suisman • Campbell • Rios has been selected to develop the conceptual master plan for downtown Los Angeles’s First Street. The 2.4 mile corridor links Disney Concert Hall on Bunker Hill to Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights. The street runs by Los Angeles City Hall, which was renovated by Project Restore, and across the Los Angeles River on the historic First Street Bridge. More than $2.4 billion is currently being reinvested along the corridor, from the Grand Avenue Project and the new Caltrans Headquarters to the East Side light rail project. Numerous mixed-use housing developments are also underway. The team, a joint venture of Suisman Urban Design, Campbell & Campbell, and Rios Clementi Hale Studios, will develop a detailed streetscape plan, as well as development, programming, marketing, and maintenance strategies for the street.
Read MoreSuisman Urban Design has developed a vision plan for downtown Marina, focused on a new town center that combines a major transit facility, housing, retail, and a public square. Working with Sacramento-based Local Government Commission, which led the project, Suisman was brought in by the city of Marina to help reconcile the city’s redevelopment goals with the transit operations requirements of Monterey Salinas Transit, the regional transit operator. The results were presented in a series of public meetings and workshops over two days in mid-April, and received broad support from the local community. The city and the agency are now engaged in discussions to determine how to move forward with the project.
Read MoreThe “official” monograph on the Disney Concert Hall, published by Abrams, includes a chapter length essay on the history of planning in downtown Los Angeles, including the work of Suisman Urban Design on the “Ten Minute Diamond”, the master plan for the Los Angeles Civic Center. The essay, by the noted planning historian Carol McMichael Reese, cites Doug Suisman’s leading role among the “visionaries” of the plan, whose imagery she calls “brilliantly concise and revelatory.” Suisman’s iconic axonometric drawing of the plan is reproduced.
Read MoreThe long and somewhat tortured history of planning efforts along Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles has been elegantly summarized in a Slatin Report essay by Morris Newman. Newman’s chronicle, which includes Suisman Urban Design’s work for the CRA/LA in the late 1990’s, reviews the succession of initiatives and visions which–despite strong political support–failed to remake the avenue in time for the openings of the new Cathedral (2003) and Disney Concert Hall (2004). Newman sets the stage for the current massive redevelopment project now being launched by the Grand Avenue Authority.
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