The Broad Urban Makeover

    Collaborating with the Liveable Memphis foundation, the Historic Broad Business Association had a two day long event on the Broad Avenue. Volunteers painted the street, added crosswalks and protected bike lanes to make it more pedestrian and cyclist friendly. Vacant buildings were cleaned and repainted and were filled with pop-up shops and restaurants. With support from Liveable Memphis, the Hyde Family Foundation, the Binghamton Development Council, the Memphis Regional Design Center and the city of Memphis, the Historic Broad Avenue Business Association formed a community-based association to plan a facelift for Broad Avenue. The organizers approximated that roughly 13,000 people came there over the course of the weekend. The event gave a new Face to the Broad Street. Though it was meant to be a temporary event, it gave an insight to what could be done of the run-down neighbourhoods of the city. This was possible without much of financial investment. It's an attempt to show how neighborhood business districts can be made comfortable, human and real again.

    Originally it was a suburban community on the rail line between Memphis and Raleigh, Binghamton. The neighborhood was annexed in 1919 by Memphis.  At one time, Broad Avenue boasted three grocery stores, three dry goods stores, three doctors, a dentist, a lawyer's office, shoe repair shop, several restaurants and a barber shop along with other businesses catering to the neighborhood. In the early 1900s, Broad Avenue had the character of the main street to the surrounding neighborhood, with a barbershop, a bank, and a dry-goods store (www.commercialappeal.com). Today it is home to a growing arts district that includes art galleries, numerous artist studios, and various related businesses. In more recent times, nonetheless, the street has been home to bare storefronts and biker gangs before transitioning to today’s budding arts district. A few years ago, the neighborhood business association began hosting quarterly “art walks”.

    So what made this event on the broad Avenue seems like a festive event which amazed many and gave a clear idea of how this neighbourhood can be dealt with in the future? Most important issues which were taken care of was, bringing business and life into the area. All of the vacant buildings along the street were opened and filled with retail shops, restaurants and activities from the Memphis community. Retail venues joining the Broad Avenue family of businesses for the event included: Outdoors Inc., Revolutions, and Brighton Pavilion, including a florist and an array of jewellery shops. New facades were created for the buildings that were currently closed off, thus creating an atmosphere of energy and openness. Murals were lined at the street and provided a location for emerging artists to come paint during the event. Bike lanes and green scape was repainted and planted for the event on the Broad Avenue. There was special kid’s zone with skating ramps.

It’s not the first time that Broad Avenue has served as an urban experiment. In early 2006, the Office of Planning and Development held a design meeting in what is now T Clifton Gallery to learn what all did the residents wanted to see in their neighborhood. Ultimately, however, Planning and Development was using the Broad Avenue corridor as its test case for the new Unified Development Code, passed recently by both the Shelby County Commission and the Memphis City Council (source: the memphisflyer).

    There was a similar event held in Dallas in the month of March of this year. An event called “The Better Block Project” in which a Dallas suburb took one block and altered it into an entire street with outdoor seating, bikes lanes, and parking.   A car-centric four lane street with poor zoning and restrictive development ordinances was converted into a people-friendly neighborhood block. This example gives a very good live caste to study of what can be done of the rundown neighbourhoods of the city. The Broad Avenue experiment was indeed something which could be made into an undying hub for the area. Architecture and Urban Design when manipulated and re-developed with time, gives an opportunity of new life to a place. Since, there is a possibility of it being made into a permanent set up with the bike lanes and the open galleries; it would have an opportunity of attracting tourists in the city. Like the Broad Avenue, this city has other Art districts which have a potential of reconnecting and reinvigorating bustling inner-city community through creation of a vibrant, attractive arts destination in the heart of the city. 

Data Courtesy: The Liveable Memphis Foundation, broadavearts.com.

Image Courtesy: The memphisflyer.com.