At the heart of transforming highways to parkways is the simple idea of creating places for people; where sustainable infrastructure, multi-modal transportation connections, mix of land uses, and inclusive spaces allow people to live, work, and play year round. When cities are designed for people, they always remain attractive to live in and are resilient to the uncertainties of changing economic and demographic conditions.
The City of Buffalo has already begun to put this idea into practice. This effort is exemplified by the Buffalo Green Code. Which places the recent adaptive reuse of historic industrial and manufacturing buildings for modern purposes into a regulatory framework for good urban form while letting neighborhoods evolve over time. Transforming the Skyway Corridor into a landscape parkway of neighborhood-scale mixed-use development builds upon the principles and work of the Green Code, by modernizing an underutilized, single-use infrastructure to form an urban asset for sustainable economic development. At the same time, transforming the Skyway Corridor from a highway to a parkway is the first step in the long-term development needed to restore the urban fabric of a globally significant Buffalo.
Continually successful cities share common characteristics of innovation in economic industries and desirable urban neighborhoods. To encourage impact that would radiate throughout the entire cities of Buffalo and Lackawanna, transforming highways to parkways builds upon the legacies of Buffalo, and allows for the development of the city to match the physical characteristics, and eventually economy, of global cities like Copenhagen and London.
Team: Ryan Kucinski, Leo Castillo, Seth Amman, John Cotter
Distinction: Top Nine Finalist Team