Grand Center Improvements Over 50 Years

Over the course of the semester, students spoke with residents, visitors and organizations involved in Grand Center, as well as professionals in the fields of real estate development, public policy, public art, architecture and urban design. Students drew upon their mapping analysis and these conversations (and from existing plans completed for the area over the past few years) to create a set of goals that informed a new framework proposal for the district. The framework then formed the basis for individual speculative student design proposals on selected sites that explore formal approaches to ideas within the framework. Connect all sectors of the Grand Center neighborhood south and north of Delmar through a multi-user complex designed primarily for recovering veterans through a Recreation Therapy facility associated with Veteran Affairs Medical Center that could also accommodate retail, commerce, additional medical provider and therapy offices, a central plaza with bike and fitness trails, basketball court, green space as well as private healing gardens.