Streets and Public Spaces
Turning city shorelines into open, working and resilient places.
Start here · Essential guide
A plain-language overview of how neglected or industrial waterfronts become mixed public districts: the phases, the stakeholders and the pitfalls to expect.
Design ideas for the water edge, from promenades to terraced and floating edges, and how flexible spaces can cope with rising and falling water levels.
How to keep a redeveloped shoreline open to everyone, with practical notes on access, seating, shade, programming and avoiding a private-only waterfront.
How waterfront projects relate to jobs, tourism, property values and the tax base, and where the benefits are uncertain, slow or unevenly shared.
How housing, commerce, ports and industry share a shoreline, and how cities manage conflicts between these uses and with public access to the water.
Planning and governance strategy for waterfronts: master plans, phasing, public-private arrangements and how a city keeps long-term control of its shoreline.
What is distinctive about redeveloping sea-coast waterfronts: tides, storms, ports, beaches and the way coastal identity shapes a city's redevelopment choices.
Coastal hazard and long-term risk in waterfront renewal: sea-level rise, flood exposure, setbacks and how cities weigh protection against retreat.
Environmental design choices for waterfronts, including living shorelines, stormwater handling and low-impact materials, and the trade-offs with cost and access.
A starting overview of how former working waterfronts are reopened to the public, covering access, mixed uses and the main trade-offs cities face.
How cities try to keep jobs-based harbor uses such as ports, fishing and shipyards while opening some of the shoreline to public access and new uses.
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