• Belmar

    A dead mall becomes a downtown for a sprawling suburb
    Although Lakewood, Colorado, is the fifth largest city in the state, until the last decade the city had no true downtown. Instead, the Denver suburb boasted one of the country’s largest indoor shopping malls, built in the 1960s—but by 2000, that mall was mostly vacant. The development is anchored...Read more
  • Mercado District

    A timeless place from the ground up
    The Mercado District, once leveled by urban renewal, is fast becoming one of Tucson’s most significant hubs. With it, the Mercado San Augistin—the district’s first commercial building—has flourished, bringing in top chefs and bartenders and specialty shops. Illustrative plan for Mercado District...Read more
  • Martin Luther King Plaza

    The neighborhood model of public housing
    The Hawthorne neighborhood in Philadelphia has come back to life—catalyzed by Martin Luther King Plaza, the redevelopment of a former high-rise public housing project. "The area is more comfortable. It's beautiful because everyone is trying to get along and everything,” long-time resident Tom...Read more