Tag Archives: mixed-use

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“Regenerative Suburban Median” designed by Brian Alessi.  From the Reburbia Suburban Design Competition sponsored by dwell magazine and Inhabitat.com.

Create more median strips, and allow gardening there. In San Carlos, we have many overly wide streets like Laurel Street between Oak Street and Spring Street. Those couple of blocks, for example, are a massive, ugly expanse of pavement. In spots like this, we should add wide medians with parks/community gardens. This would enhance pedestrian safety by slowing down cars, and it would make the town much more beautiful.

Here’s a description of how this might be done: Brian Alessi’s “Regenerative Suburban Median”

- Arley Lewis, San Carlos

Mixed-Use

Original Photo: Flickr user Architecture & Food.  Used under Creative Commons license.

Revitalize existing commercial buildings in major business districts to add residential uses where feasible, encourage live/work facilities, make downtown areas more walkable and increase economic activity.

Many strip malls do not currently make the best use of available land. By redesigning these projects to include more centralized services and a residential component, individual community identity is strengthened and traffic decreases as more people conveniently travel on foot.

The Grand Boulevard project seeks to recreate El Camino Real using these concepts.