Perkins+Will announced on Aug. 18 the firm’s latest planning wins and expanded business for its planning practice, with a focus on work for underserved neighborhoods and regions.
Led by global leaders Janice Barnes and Karen Alschuler, Perkins+Will has broadened its efforts with economic development groups, regional planning agencies, as well as transit agencies, healthcare providers, and mixed-use developers. The work is resulting in comprehensive, long-term plans that will guide new growth in places like Buffalo, N.Y., Kingston, R.I., and Brooklyn, N.Y.
“These new projects reflect Perkins+Will’s commitment to the many New York communities where serious need remains for improved community health and its supporting infrastructure, housing, health services, recreation, and transit,” says Barnes, PhD. “It’s all part of public- and private-sector efforts to knit together the very fabric of our cities, to reinforce and revitalize them, which can only happen through serious community engagement.”
Helping connect community leaders with planning agencies and such client groups as New York’s Economic Development Corp. (EDC), the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. (ECHDC), Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, and Community Care of Brooklyn PPS, Perkins+Will is taking a leadership role in shaping major waterfront redevelopment, urban revitalization, transit centers and health districts, says Barnes.
Principals include Barnes, who leads the firm’s Planning+Strategies group, along with: Karen Alschuler, who leads Urban Design; Robin Guenther, FAIA, a global leader in resilience and healthcare; and health district expert Jason Harper, AIA, who recently presented on health district planning in Toronto at the World Congress on Design & Health.
In addition, Perkins+Will has been selected as lead consultant for a number of significant planning commissions and related initiatives. Recently announced projects led by Perkins+Will include:
Buffalo
Perkins+Will has been selected to design a waterfront master plan in Buffalo, including the reuse and redevelopment of 171 acres of the outer Lake Erie harbor. The plan will reconnect downtown Buffalo with its waterfront and create a vibrant destination of community, commerce and culture. The client, ECHDC, is working with the firm’s New York and San Francisco offices on three development alternatives for the land, with significant community engagement and public participation. Led by Alschuler and Dennis Dornan, a senior planner in the firm’s urban design group, the result will be a complete land-use framework, including financial projections and an operations plan, to encourage active use of the outer harbor while enhancing public access and linking it to downtown and its Canalside district. Thomas Dee, the CEO of ECHDC, noted that Perkins+Will has a track record of successful experience with cold-weather waterfronts – in Ottawa and Toronto, among others.
The firm is also involved with projects that address legacy brownfield remediation to reimagine post-industrial sites, such as their new project in Kingston, N.Y. The firm’s senior planner, Amy Thompson, notes that this work reflects Perkins+Will’s long history of leadership in urban design and environmental stewardship nationally.
Health Districts
The firm is also working on a range of planning projects where the goal is to create a regional health district – a livable, walkable neighborhood that focuses on wellness, prevention and overall community health through network partnering and pooled resources. Perkins+Will’s Harper, who frequently lectures and publishes on the topic, has also worked to advance urban design and planning criteria for health districts with ULI, the Congress for New Urbanism, EcoDistricts, AIANY, the New York Academy of Medicine, and other groups. Harper, along with Basak Allen and David Green, advocates from both the grassroots and global perspective in his efforts to create healthier communities.
Brooklyn
One of those budding health districts may soon be in Brooklyn, where Barnes recently chaired a ULI workshop to spark new implementation strategies for a transit-oriented development (TOD) zone called Broadway Junction. Barnes and Harper, along with Daniel Windsor, senior urban planner at Perkins+Will, recently partnered with a panel of experts and community leaders to identify the short-, mid- and long-term “enabling projects” for the Broadway Junction community, The ULI New York's Technical Assistance Panel, or TAP, is a volunteer effort to provide urban planning strategies for targeted communities. The Broadway Junction community is within the catchment area of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where Perkins+Will is also at work assisting the medical center on the development of a strategy for a “health improvement district.”
The TAP will make recommendations to the New York City Department of City Planning as well as to local community board and nonprofits, “to incentivize large-scale and mixed-use development along key blocks … and create new employment, retail, and entertainment opportunities for surrounding residential communities,” says ULI New York. In parallel, and guided by Perkins+Will’s efforts, Wyckoff is identifying opportunities to partner with healthcare providers in the Broadway Junction community as well as in their larger catchment area, to increase access to healthcare services for this underserved area, which has some of the highest asthma and diabetes rates in the city.
Transit Oriented Developments of TODs (various locations)
In addition to Broadway Junction, Perkins+Will planners have been engaged for other large, mixed-use TOD plans in North America to spur economic revitalization in dozens of underserved communities. Recent TOD projects by the firm include the award-winning Treasure Island Master Plan + Urban Design project in San Francisco, the Beltline Corridor Design in Atlanta, and Station Park Green in San Mateo, Calif.
Resiliency (various locations)
Perkins+Will has worked with national, state and city leaders on regional plans and facility specific planning, design, and construction projects to identify and implements techniques for reducing climate- and weather-related risks to communities and the built environment. These planning and architecture projects examined how underserved communities can become more resilient to – and recover more swiftly from – the disastrous impacts of future severe weather events. Guenther, one of the firm’s experts on resilience, helps prepare health organizations for increased climate risks and severe weather. Guenther will speak on the topic at the conference“Building the Resilient City,” to be held Sept. 4-5 in San Francisco by the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Related Stories
Codes and Standards | Jun 15, 2022
Waived tariffs on solar panels expected to boost solar power
The Biden Administration recently waived tariffs on solar panels from four countries in a move advocates say will accelerate the clean energy transition and benefit national security.
Cultural Facilities | Jun 15, 2022
Gehry-designed Children’s Institute aims to foster community outreach in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood
The Children’s Institute (CII) in Los Angeles will open a 200,000-sf campus designed by Frank Gehry this summer.
Building Team | Jun 14, 2022
Thinking beyond the stadium: the future of district development
Traditional sports and entertainment venues are fading as teams and entertainment entities strive to move toward more diversified entertainment districts.
Codes and Standards | Jun 14, 2022
Hospitals’ fossil fuel use trending downward, but electricity use isn’t declining as much
The 2021 Hospital Energy and Water Benchmarking Survey by Grumman|Butkus Associates found that U.S. hospitals’ use of fossil fuels is declining since the inception of the annual survey 25 years ago, but electricity use is dipping more slowly.
Healthcare Facilities | Jun 13, 2022
University of Kansas Health System cancer care floors foster community and empathy
On three floors of Cambridge Tower A at The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, patients being treated for blood cancers have a dedicated space that not only keeps them safe during immune system comprising treatments, but also provide feelings of comfort and compassion.
Building Team | Jun 13, 2022
Ware Malcomb promotes Matt Chaiken to vice president
Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, today announced that Matt Chaiken has been promoted to Vice President in the firm’s Denver office.
Building Team | Jun 13, 2022
Partnership rethinks emergency shelters to turn them into sustainable, resilient homes
Holcim and the Norman Foster Foundation have struck a partnership to rethink emergency shelters to turn them into sustainable and resilient homes.
Building Team | Jun 13, 2022
A mixed-used building to rise above Fort Lauderdale, with views of downtown and the ocean
ODA, a New York-based architecture and design studio, recently released renderings of Ombelle, a project including two residential towers in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Office Buildings | Jun 13, 2022
San Antonio’s electric utility HQ to transform into a modern office building
In San Antonio, Tex., the former headquarters of CPS Energy, the city’s electric utility, is slated to transform into 100,000 square feet of office and retail space on San Antonio’s famed River Walk.
Cultural Facilities | Jun 10, 2022
After 10 Years, Taiwan’s new Taipei Music Center Reaches the Finish Line
RUR Architecture has finished the Taipei Music Center (TMC), turning a 22-acre (9-hectare) site into a new urban arts district.
