Duke Beltline

Research:

• BENEFITS OF THE TRAIL
  • CONNECTIONS:
    • Link the Durham bus station, Amtrak station, future light rail system, and existing trails
    • Increase bicycle and pedestrian traffic
    • Relieve motor vehicle congestion

• • GROWTH:
    • Attract housing, offices, and commercial growth around the trail
    • Increase investment in urban neighborhoods

• • HEALTH:
    • Provide green spaces for residents to maintain physical health
    • Promote healthy activities for teens and children
      

 

Our Design Intervention: 

• AWARENESS:
  • Promoting awareness and getting people excited for the future.

• NAVIGATION:
  • Creating a fluid navigational system that has meaning to the community and can be learned over time.

• IDENTITY:
  • Revealing and embracing the unique aspects of the area in the form of a customizable and flexible identity for the community.

• TECHNOLOGY:
  • Using technology in a way that encourages interaction among members of the community and compliments the physical system.

 

Plans Moving Forward: 

• Research other connected areas and determine how they
  fit into the overall identity and navigation system, how this can extend beyond the scope of the trail
• Interview citizens to figure out associations for each neighborhood/region + establish guidelines for
  participatory identity design
• Determine interest and viability of supplemental programs
  such as the bulletin board, community garden, and bike-share.

 

Duke Beltline Trail

Logan LaBo, Conor Lenhardt, Sam Hasan, Allison Ubinas, Arianna Slade-Duncan

 

Initial Visit:

Witnessed use of trail already.
People walking, eating food, walking dogs. Trail goes through a variety of areas from restaurants and shops to suburban neighborhoods. Parts of the track already concreted over, many parts are also very unaccessible currently due to overgrowth of nature.

Rich history in durham connected to the tobacco industry, many old tobacco buildings have been repurposed into apartments and shops.

 

Current “new culture” durham is pushing to develop. Durham has outline in 2004 a plan to develop the culture and arts and arts in durham.

A wealth of new restaurants, shops, fashion, art, music have all sprung up in the past 10 years that promote this connected culture partially inspired by Durham as a collective and “brand” city of the bull. Small businesses like Runaway (clothing) capitalize on this durham brand and culture.

 

Design Plan:

• Leverage History and Culture of Durham
• Downtown as the hub of Durham’s cultural life while emphasizing activities in neighborhoods
• Creating interactive spaces that combine crowdsourcing and history to educate and entertain differing users
• Create nodal system that promote various activities along the trail, but are all connected together by these crowdsourced interactive displays.
  
  

  

  

  

The Beltline

 

Abby Herman – Nikita Miller – Matt Rogers – Anina Van der Vorst – Kayla Watson

Location:

Audience: We have identified three main purposes that will use the Beltline

1. Residential
2. Recreation
3. Commuters

Overall Aims/ Challenges: With our three main audience members we wanted to address the issues of safety, accessibility, proximity, and congestion with aim of creating a space that is usable by residents, recreation lists, and commuters.

 

Concepts: We decided to focus on branding, trail markers, an app and a mural.

Branding: “Why aren’t you going downtown?”. We want the Durham Beltline to not only be a physical brand but a brand experience. We want community members to take pride in the use of the trail but we also want to get people who wouldn’t traditionally go downtown, to use the beltline and experience more of Durham. We’re don’t want the trail to seem like a “copy and pasted” bike trail from other cities.

Aims/Challenges: How can we get different people to want to use the beltline?It needs to appeal to a range of people

 

Trail Markers: The trail markers will serve as a physical wayfinding system. It serves to differentiate between districts or sections of trail. Along with this, it can track distance or miles for recreational users.

Aims/Challenges: Can the markers help people feel an attachment to the beltline through brand and sub-brand? If this part is my district, do I want to keep it clean, safe, etc?

 

App: The app will serve as a digital wayfinding system. We don’t just want the app to do something that markers are doing. We want the app to be frequently updated with events downtown and serve as a method for small businesses to get involved (“Small Business Saturdays,” farmers markets, etc).

Aims/Challenges: How can we make the app feel useful and not like it was an afterthought?

 

Mural: We want the mural to serve a monument of landmark on the trail. This mural with get the community involved and help unify the community (method of unification). Get the community involved and help unify the community. The mural will fit the existing aesthetic and vibe of Durham. The mural is also something that can change regularly which it can host frequent events and it stays fresh.

The Stream (Raleigh River Walk)

Identity of Raleigh shifting around the location of the stream.

The City of Raleigh in partnership with “THE STREAM” has established two venue locations alongside either side of the river. One venue referred to as Upstream and the second referred to as Downstream.

• Remapping

With Raleigh’s identity now being centered around “The Stream” we will promote a switch in language, specifically language linked to directions. Instead of referring to the city of uptown and downtown the city residents refers to themselves in relation to upstream and downstream.

We have to be careful to not make the two venues based on wealth, status, etc. our main goal is to integrate the different parts of the community through the stream and through the venue events.

We are trying to create a adaptable logo that can flip depending on if it is an upstream or downstream event.

 

• Branding/Name/Logo

 

“THE STREAM” is the overall name encompassing both venues. The logo and name is fluid and allows for language substitutions and additions.

For example exploration of names for events and services under “THE STREAM:”

• Main Stream
• Live Stream
• Stream Line
• Down Stream
• Up Stream
• X Stream

Keeping a base typeface and feel for the overarching brand “THE STREAM” and tweaking it depending on the subject/even allows for continuity and brand recognition while still being flexible and fun.

 

• Mass Transit (StreamLine)

 

The Stream Line bus line is the connecting element that runs between the two venues. We are repurposing the existing bus line that already exists in that area which is now part of the greyhound system. The buses themselves, bus stops shelters, benches are a good canvas for advertising upcoming events and repurposing for or need to get the word out to the community.

 

• Website

 

A central place to see all the upcoming events and past events at the venues and learn about “The Stream”

Seasonal Events

The identity of the stream will be built largely around its relationship to the community (the city of Raleigh). In order to help build this community interaction, the Stream will be used as a location to host special events. These events will take place at the same general location so that participants to eliminate some confusion. Everyone is free to participate. These events differ depending on the time of year and will cater to various age groups and backgrounds. The goal is to integrate the community by bringing people in the city together while, at the same time, establishing the stream as a presence that can become a part of Raleigh’s identity!

These events will feature various activities that take place during different parts of the year.

Summer: Float  fest, boating, tubing, making boats and racing, ice cream festival, concerts, cookouts, romantic nights for couples.

Spring: Easter themes, concerts, wildlife related events, cookouts

Fall: Halloween (BloodStream), Thanksgiving, bonfire

Winter: Christmas, ice skating, lights,

Advertisements for these designs may manifest themselves in various forms. Our current ideas include posters and a website, but we are also considering more innovative ways to let the city know about upcoming events. These designs will hopefully be something that participants want to collect or curate.

https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/presentation/d/1lrTXcXDoO_u2Idz-t34SMJY7a-f7KCsB2ghsq2H_WsU/edit?usp=sharing

Raleigh Riverwalk Proposal

Raleigh River Walk

Purpose: 

Our purpose for this project is to revive, repurpose, and remember this new restored area in Raleigh.

-Revive

We believe if we utilize this area that is boxed in by these major roads in Raleigh, we can take advantage of the potential increase in foot traffic and of these local businesses.

-Repurpose

The area is a collection of different businesses that don’t get a lot of attention and little to no foot traffic. To hold our event here, is to give more significance and attention to this area. We want to create new associations and identity to this part of Raleigh.

-Remember

By holding an event that allows people to use the river as a driving force to directly affect the members of their community.

Concept:

By leaving a message behind, we are creating experiences that ensure that the Pigeon House Branch is not forgotten along with the businesses that surround it. We plan on creating a themed festival that is within this new, developed area.

-Activities

Messages are written down on a sheet of paper that will be in some type of container. Once that message is written, it is sent down the river where someone at the end of the river can receive and read it, and then add it to the installation.

-Installation

There will be something that will reward those who participated in the event and create a personal connection for those who live there.

Location:

Pigeon House Branch is a man-made river that collects the stormwater throughout Raleigh. The area we were looking at developing is along N West St, Wade Ave, Peace St, and Glenwood Ave.

We are thinking of this location as an already developed area with a riverwalk along the stream/river. Along the riverwalk is local businesses with a culture of repurposing the already standing buildings.

Raleigh River Walk

Many Neighborhoods, One Community

Jack, Julia, Nicole, Ashley, & Megan

Statement of Purpose: Rather than emphasizing the idea of a unified social collective, our initiative aims to amplify and celebrate the diversity between Raleigh neighborhoods while creating enriched connections between individuals, neighborhoods, and communities.

Concept: We strive to enhance the identity of Raleigh neighborhoods by creating the opportunity for residents to become placemakers. Similar to the “Paint the Pavement” initiative, we envision creating an annual event in which residents congregate to paint semi-permanent street murals along the Rocky Branch Trail that visually encapsulate the current cultural climate of neighborhoods in Raleigh (please see below for more details on location).

However, to establish a true sense of participation, we want to take it a step further by enabling everyone in the community to co-create the design. We challenge ourselves to determine a method that enables individuals to visually recognize his/her contribution. This could potentially take the form of a supporting app and/or website.

Although each neighborhood creates a customized, unique visual identity we also propose to create a unifying branding system through which we conceptually integrate individuals into neighborhoods and neighborhoods into a larger community.

Location: The Rocky Branch Trail runs through a variety of Raleigh neighborhoods and park systems along the Capital Greenway Trail System. The trail has the potential to catalyze dynamic partnerships by providing a culturally neutral venue.

The street murals also serve as an alternative form of wayfinding that suggests a reconceptualization of the definition of a neighborhood. Traditional signs and maps imply neighborhoods are bound by arbitrary demarcations. However, the murals as “signage” intimate that neighborhoods are defined by the people that comprise them rather than their physical locations.

CONNECTING THE MARTIN STREET CONNECTOR TO The Rocky Branch Trail through Boylan Heights and Raleigh Union Station enables accessibility by creating a loop.

Aims/Challenges:

• Establish a real sense of participation: give citizens tangible way to contribute
• Encourage Involvement:
  • keep interactions simple, straightforward, and accessible. Input needs to be succinct to encourage maximum user participation
  • Allow Access: Maintain physical (closing the gap between the Martin Street connector, Raleigh Union Station through Boylan Heights to create a loop) as well as cognitive accessibility
• Co-Creation
  • Is this essentially a crowdsourcing app that utilizes user input to aid in the design of the mural?
    • The mural is essentially a form of data visualization that allows people to see what is currently important to the neighborhood.