VODA Landscape + Planning

VODA’s been involved with an exciting new project, one of Salt Lake City’s future Great Places, the Sugar House Streetcar Greenway.  Many groups, municipalities, and organizations have been working for years to see this project come about, and everyone’s excited to see the project finally under construction.  We’ve been working with the great design team at CRSA to develop documents for the construction of the greenway space along the new streetcar, which will also be home to Parley’s Trail, connecting major recreational facilities such as the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Sugar House Park, and the Jordan River Parkway.

 

The Streetcar Greenway will be home to Parley’s Trail, the Sugar House Streetcar line, community gardens, and many public spaces that will bring vibrancy and energy to the neighborhoods along the corridor.

Additionally, VODA’s been working with a group of University of Utah students to develop sustainability education features along the greenway corridor. The students have spent the last school year working on the initial concepts for “The Green Line: A Sustainability Corridor.”  The Green Line would brand the entire corridor of the streetcar as a sustainable place, with individual installations demonstrating various aspects of sustainability, including energy sustainability, food sustainability, transportation sustainability, and environmental sensitivity.  With a strong Sustainability brand, the Green Line can influence development throughout the neighborhoods along the corridor, encouraging more efficient and sustainable building patterns.

Last night the Salt Lake City Council approved $6.8 million in funding for the greenway element of the Streetcar Corridor.  With construction on the streetcar finally underway, we could see the park and streetcar operational as soon as 2013.

On a team with Community Studio, VODA was enlisted to create 3D concepts for inclusion in a transit-oriented development study for the city of South Lake Lake. A 3D model was created and revised to illustrate to city officials the potential for growth along key transit routes traversing South Salt Lake. Read more about this project »

VODA worked on a team led by CRSA to craft a master land use plan for the Cache Logan Airport area.  Involving all adjacent communities, the master land use plan was created to ensure that future development along the two major corridors adjacent to the airport was compatible with the continued operations of the airport. GIS and other mapping software was used to analyze environmental and developmental constraints to development in the study area.

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Working on a team with Fehr and Peers, Design Workshop designed improvements along Salt Lake City’s East Capitol Boulevard. East Capitol Boulevard currently has no marked parking and no crosswalks for pedestrian safety – yet it is the main location of parking for visitors to the capitol, especially during the legislative session.
Salt Lake City Corporation recognized the lack of cohesive design on this important stretch of road and hired Design Workshop’s team to design safety and traffic calming improvements for the road and design elements of the Utah State Capitol Campus Master Plan which are still incomplete. The master plan, developed by the Capitol Preservation Board, lists several goals and objectives for East Capitol Boulevard that include: respond to the critical issues of traffic patterns on and around the Capitol Campus; recognize the need for traffic calming on streets surrounding the Capitol Campus and provide solutions that reduce surface parking and provide for 1200 cars minimum.

With these objectives in mind Design Workshop began by aligning the goals and objectives of Salt Lake City with those of the Capitol Preservation Board, and developed a site analysis and conceptual design that realized these goals and established opportunities for connecting the Capitol to the greater community. The plan creates and integrates trails, and creates connections to the adjacent and historically significant Memory Grove Park with a historic interpretive plaza overlooking the park and more visible connections to the park. In addition, the proposed design achieves the goal of turning East Capitol Boulevard into a more pedestrian friendly environment, through the integration of landscaped medians that serve to calm traffic and directing pedestrians to controlled street crossings.

Previous project experience of Melanie Schmidt (Voda) while working for Design Workshop

While on a team at CRSA Mark Morris from VODA assisted in the development of a regulating plan for the Farmington Station area of the FrontRunner commuter rail system. The city of Farmington had been dissatisfied with previous ordinances for the area, and wanted to craft a regulating plan that would be effective in creating the transit-oriented development patterns that would be most appropriate for this area.

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Working on a team at CRSA, VODA has worked with Nibley City staff and elected officials on two projects. In 2008 we were involved in the General Plan Update process for Nibley City.  We facilitated several public meetings, hearings, and input sessions. The team collected information from the Nibley City Planning Commission, City Council, and the general public.

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Working on a team at CRSA, Mark Morris of VODA worked with officials in Rexburg, Idaho to update their Comprehensive Plan document.  The team held regular update meetings with local stakeholders, including the city council and planning commission, in order to thoroughly understand the major issues that the city is facing.  The new document will aid local leaders in guiding growth and development in appropriate areas and in appropriate forms.

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Working with the national Railvolution Conference Steering Committee, Mark Morris of VODA created the final conference publication for the organization’s 2005 Conference, held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Railvolution is the nation’s premier transit-oriented development conference, focusing on using transit as an economic development driver to build and transform communities. Planners and designers from around the country attend this conference to collaborate on innovative methods of development around transit systems.

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