(Click on the images to activate the animation.)
(Top) Independence Boulevard:
This image features a section where Village Lake Drive hits Independence. This is just south of where W.T. Harris Boulevard and Margaret Wallace Road intersect with Independence. The small stand-alone building is a Ruby Tuesday, which fronts a Dollar General and a Post Office, separated by a sea of parking spaces. Keihly is not proposing destroying these buildings, but simply, how would the street and city-scape look differently if the buildings were aligned closer to the street edge, with the parking in the back, making the street edge more walkable? Granted, Independence Boulevard is a long, auto-oriented strip, but if everything were fronting the street, it could be a completely different place. What do you think?
(Bottom) Central Avenue:
Central Avenue is quite walkable in many parts. This illustration shows how it could be improved and the gaps filled in. Even the simple moves of putting the buildings at the corners shape the space and create more enclosure, which feels nicer than the wide-open parking lot if you’re walking past. Keihly is not saying we should tear down the beloved Dairy Queen, she just aims to show how it would create a different street feeling if the buildings were right at the edge of the street - closer to its eager eaters.
Keihly Moore is a graduate student in the Urban Design and Architecture departments at UNC Charlotte. These illustrations will become part of an urban design tool kit to start a discussion about regional urban design issues.