How to Turn a Waterfront Around

PPS's newest e-newsletter edition is about Waterfronts. This particular article lists 13 key steps for turning waterfronts around. Because it's really about "rebuilding" or "strengthening" places, for the most part, the points are universal.

1. Make public goals the primary objective
2. Create a shared community vision for the waterfront
3. Create multiple destinations: The Power of Ten
4. Connect the destinations
5. Optimize public access
6. Ensure that new development fits within the community's vision
7. Encourage 24-hour activity by limiting residential development
8. Use parks to connect destinations, not as destinations unto themselves
9. Design and program buildings to engage the public space
10. Support multiple modes of transportation and limit vehicular access
11. Integrate seasonal activities into each destination
12. Make stand-alone, iconic buildings serve multiple functions
13. Manage, manage, manage

Another article in the issue, "Mistakes by the Lake, River, or Sea," complements the other. Too often people focus on the good, without calling attention to the mistakes.

Where Waterfronts Go Wrong

Mistake #1: Single-Use Developments, Not Multi-Purpose Destinations
Mistake #2: Domination by Autos
Mistake #3: Too Much Passive Space or Too Much Recreation
Mistake #4: Private Control, not Public AccessMistake #5: Lack of Destinations
Mistake #6: A Process Driven by Development, Not by Community
Mistake #7: Design Statements