Building the heart of a city around a highway corridor
A very unique project where the corridor around a major US highway had to be developed. The area was to be made safer, livelier, and redeveloped for better connectivity and ease of living.
The Beginning
The client approached us for two things. The first was to deep dive into the existing development and find loopholes, problem areas and things that we could fix. The second was to build a design proposal based on our research to create a redeveloped corridor that improved standards of living.
The fivD effect
We started by researching similar projects in cities of similar scale to understand what worked for them. Not only this, we tried to explore the city’s 5-year vision and based on that, identified points to improve upon under each of the following categories required for a good quality of life.
To meet the city’s 5-year vision, we ensured our plans met the criteria and fulfilled it. For instance, we identified assets that could help us build connections between the city and the corridor by activating the area with eateries, promenades, retail stores and more. Not only this, we ensured the roads were identified as primary and secondary roads for better public transport accessibility.
We kept diversity as a key factor while redesigning the corridor. Earlier, each pocket was either purely residential or commercial. We introduced a hybrid living model that allowed for diverse and more interesting spaces. We also redesigned the green belts for outdoor activities and separated them from parking areas by designing podium parkings.
Despite many challenges such as remote working during the second wave of COVID-19, and a strict timeline of 4 weeks till the meeting with the city government, our team ensured maximum efficiency in the completion of the project in due time.