On August 4th, a standing-room only crowd gathered at CAM Raleigh to hear the results of a three-day Creative Placemaking Panel Workshop. The ULI Panel, supported by the Kresge Foundation and ULI Triangle, was comprised of experts in creative placemaking, transit-oriented development (TOD) and planning. The panel included:

Marilee Utter, Panel Chair
Citiventure Associates

Manoj Dalaya
KGD Architecture

Dan Gallagher
City of Charlotte Department of Transportation

Juanita Hardy
ULI Senior Visiting Fellow for Creative Placemaking

Cheryl Myers
Charlotte Center City Partners

Thomas Sayre
Sculptor/Painter; Clearscapes

Eric Swanson
Treadwell Franklin Infrastructure Capital, LLC

Ben Stone
Smart Growth America / Transportation For America

Rachel MacCleery
ULI Building Healthy Places Initiative / Infrastructure Initiative

The panelists toured and analyzed four future transit stops in the Triangle to highlight approaches and recommendations to make infrastructure investments authentic and beneficial to the local community. They were assisted by a core group of local stakeholders who prepared briefs, shared plans, led tours, made presentations and participated in interviews. The four sites studied by the panel included:

1. Proposed Buchanan Boulevard Station on the Durham-Orange Light Rail line in Durham
2. Proposed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Hillsborough Street station on the Chapel Hill North-South Bus Rapid Transit line in Chapel Hill
3. Potential South Wilmington Street at Garner Station Boulevard station on the Wake County Bus Rapid Transit system in Garner
4. Union Station in Raleigh

After working tirelessly for three straight days, the panel presented their impressions and recommendations.  A theme that began early Tuesday night and ran through Friday’s presentation was recognition that while the practice may be popularly known as “Creative Placemaking,” it should in spirit also be about “placekeeping.” The panel worked to incorporate existing community and sense of place into their recommendations while identifying opportunities for growth and quality development that will come with new transit investments.

The results of this workshop will feed into ULI’s on-going research on creative placemaking and building healthy places. ULI Triangle hopes the experience was a conversation starter in our region on planning for arts, culture, and community in transit and TOD. Our region has some big opportunities ahead of us and a lot of fantastic artists, instigators, and organizers eager to pitch in. Next steps in the project will include a brief report and further engagement with each community and the core stakeholder group.

View the panel’s presentation here.

View photos from the presentation here.