K
Kalina Prelikj
Guest
- Thread Author
- #1
The 15th Architizer A+Awards has officially launched! Seize the lowest pricing of the season by entering before October 23rd, 2026. Learn more →
Cities have a funny habit of giving their most valuable spaces to things that move through them rather than the people who live there. Highways cut through neighborhoods, cars fill historic squares, and industrial sites turn their backs on the water, leaving public life to squeeze into whatever space is left over.
Jane Jacobs famously argued that successful cities depend on people being out in the street, watching, meeting and simply spending time together. The projects recognized in the 14th A+Awards take that idea seriously, finding new possibilities in places that were once difficult to access or easy to overlook. From waterfronts and former industrial land to city squares and pedestrian streets, these eight projects give urban spaces back to the people who use them, making room for everyday life to happen.
Seattle’s waterfront was long divided from downtown by the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a major highway that ran along the shoreline and limited access to Elliott Bay. Its removal, alongside the reconstruction of the Elliott Bay Seawall, opened the way for a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometer) public promenade stretching across 26 blocks.
New paths connect downtown with the water, while the Overlook Walk creates a direct pedestrian link between Pike Place Market and the waterfront. Gardens, beaches and event spaces bring people closer to the bay, while new habitat and more than 1,000 trees strengthen the shoreline’s ecological role. The project also reflects Seattle’s cultural history through partnerships with Coast Salish communities. With the highway gone, the waterfront is once again a place where residents can walk, gather and experience the bay as part of the city.
Nelson’s waterfront had become difficult to reach after manufacturing and transportation infrastructure cut the city off from Kootenay Lake. Hall Street Pier brings that relationship back into everyday life, drawing on the city’s history as a place for boating, swimming and recreation. The design takes inspiration from the Ladybird, a community-built speedboat that set a world speed record on the lake in 1933, with its story preserved inside the new Ladybird Pavilion.
A floating dock opens the water to swimmers and boaters, while new services allow the pier to host markets, concerts and community events. With places to gather beside the lake throughout the year, the pier gives residents a reason to return to the waterfront and makes the lake part of daily urban life again.
Downtown Cary Park grew from almost two decades of acquiring parcels in the center of town and a year of community planning. Opened in 2023, the seven-acre park gives Cary a new public landscape at a time of rapid growth, with paths and elevated walkways connecting gardens, play areas and open spaces across the sloping site.
Pavilions provide places to eat, meet and take shelter, while a large lawn gives the community room for events and informal recreation. The landscape also manages stormwater through rain gardens, swales and a large detention pond, turning an environmental challenge into part of the park experience. More than 750,000 people visited during its first year, making the park an important new gathering place in the center of Cary.
Along the Huangpu River, a former industrial site once occupied by the Shanghai Cement Plant has been opened back to the city, changing how people experience this stretch of waterfront. Rather than leaving the industrial landscape behind, the project carries traces of its past into a new public setting, where exposed concrete and reclaimed timber sit alongside a landscape shaped for everyday use.
Paths now lead gradually from the city toward the river, allowing the waterfront to be reached without the hard edge that once separated it from its surroundings. As people move through the site, the landscape shifts between open plazas and quieter planted spaces, creating places to pause as well as room for larger gatherings. The waterfront now supports the informal rhythms of city life, from meeting friends after work to stopping for an impromptu performance, bringing people back to the river as part of everyday Shanghai.
For decades, a sunken expressway separated Old Montreal from the downtown core, creating a physical divide through the historic heart of the city. Place des Montréalaises addresses that fracture while establishing a memorial to 21 women who have shaped Montreal’s history. A broad inclined landscape rises over the highway, with their names inscribed along the stairs as visitors move through the site.
The memorial unfolds through the landscape rather than standing apart from it: native trees mark the entrance, while a flowering meadow changes across the seasons, offering a living tribute to the women being remembered. At the same time, the slope creates a new pedestrian connection between two parts of the city. People can pause among the planting, look across Montreal or continue along the route, allowing remembrance to become part of everyday urban life rather than a destination removed from it.
Hanzheng Street has long been one of Wuhan’s important commercial districts, but its dense urban fabric had become fragmented, with disconnected public spaces and difficult pedestrian routes. The renewal plan works within this existing neighborhood, keeping its historic network of narrow alleys while adjusting roads and selected buildings to improve connections. A new pedestrian loop runs through the district, linking 22 building clusters and opening new routes between streets and public spaces.
Historic rooflines remain part of the experience, while new plazas provide places for people to gather and for local activity to spill into the public realm. By working with the existing character of Hanzheng Street rather than clearing it away, the project makes the district easier to move through while giving its streets and public spaces a stronger role in contemporary urban life.
Once dominated by cars and parking, Birgu’s main square has been returned to pedestrians as a civic space rooted in the city’s historic character. The redesign clears the center of traffic, leaving an open setting that can shift between everyday gatherings and traditional processions or festivals. Stone paving ties the new landscape to the surrounding architecture, while a red travertine outline marks the footprint of the clock tower destroyed during World War II, giving the square a quiet reminder of what once stood there.
Restored statues and carefully placed greenery add to the character of the space without competing with its historic surroundings. With places to sit, meet and linger, Piazza Vittoriosa gives residents a more comfortable public square while allowing community traditions to continue at the heart of Birgu.
In Slavonski Brod, the redesign of the pedestrian zone began by looking closely at how people already used the city center. The design team observed where people stopped, how they moved through the space, how sunlight and wind shaped their experience, and what local residents felt was missing.
From these observations came a new promenade with a clear, regular ground pattern, contemporary furniture and warm lighting. Its restrained palette allows the surrounding façades, shop windows and street life to remain visually prominent, while the open layout gives people room to move, meet and linger. Rather than prescribing a single way to use the space, the redesign leaves room for everyday routines and future changes. The new pedestrian zone brings a calmer rhythm to the center of Slavonski Brod while keeping its public life at the forefront.
The 15th Architizer A+Awards has officially launched! Seize the lowest pricing of the season by entering before October 23rd, 2026. Learn more →
The post After the Highway: 8 Architectural Projects Returning the City to Its Residents appeared first on Journal.
Cities have a funny habit of giving their most valuable spaces to things that move through them rather than the people who live there. Highways cut through neighborhoods, cars fill historic squares, and industrial sites turn their backs on the water, leaving public life to squeeze into whatever space is left over.
Jane Jacobs famously argued that successful cities depend on people being out in the street, watching, meeting and simply spending time together. The projects recognized in the 14th A+Awards take that idea seriously, finding new possibilities in places that were once difficult to access or easy to overlook. From waterfronts and former industrial land to city squares and pedestrian streets, these eight projects give urban spaces back to the people who use them, making room for everyday life to happen.
Seattle Waterfront Park
By Field Operations, Seattle, Washington
Popular Choice Winner, 14th A+Awards, Urban & Masterplan
New paths connect downtown with the water, while the Overlook Walk creates a direct pedestrian link between Pike Place Market and the waterfront. Gardens, beaches and event spaces bring people closer to the bay, while new habitat and more than 1,000 trees strengthen the shoreline’s ecological role. The project also reflects Seattle’s cultural history through partnerships with Coast Salish communities. With the highway gone, the waterfront is once again a place where residents can walk, gather and experience the bay as part of the city.
Hall Street Pier
By the marc boutin architectural collaborative inc., Nelson, Canada
Jury Winner, 14th A+Awards, Architecture +Community
A floating dock opens the water to swimmers and boaters, while new services allow the pier to host markets, concerts and community events. With places to gather beside the lake throughout the year, the pier gives residents a reason to return to the waterfront and makes the lake part of daily urban life again.
Downtown Cary Park
By OJB Landscape Architecture, Cary, North Carolina
Popular Choice Winner, 14th A+Awards, Public Parks & Green Spaces
Pavilions provide places to eat, meet and take shelter, while a large lawn gives the community room for events and informal recreation. The landscape also manages stormwater through rain gardens, swales and a large detention pond, turning an environmental challenge into part of the park experience. More than 750,000 people visited during its first year, making the park an important new gathering place in the center of Cary.
The Gate M West Bund Dream Center
By Shanghai TlANHUA Landscape Architecture & Engineering, China
Paths now lead gradually from the city toward the river, allowing the waterfront to be reached without the hard edge that once separated it from its surroundings. As people move through the site, the landscape shifts between open plazas and quieter planted spaces, creating places to pause as well as room for larger gatherings. The waterfront now supports the informal rhythms of city life, from meeting friends after work to stopping for an impromptu performance, bringing people back to the river as part of everyday Shanghai.
Place des Montréalaises
By Lemay, Montreal, Canada
Special Mention, 14th A+Awards, Public Parks & Green Spaces
The memorial unfolds through the landscape rather than standing apart from it: native trees mark the entrance, while a flowering meadow changes across the seasons, offering a living tribute to the women being remembered. At the same time, the slope creates a new pedestrian connection between two parts of the city. People can pause among the planting, look across Montreal or continue along the route, allowing remembrance to become part of everyday urban life rather than a destination removed from it.
Revitalization of Xin’an Jiuru Area in Hanzheng Street Business District
By GOA (Group of Architects), Wuhan, China
Historic rooflines remain part of the experience, while new plazas provide places for people to gather and for local activity to spill into the public realm. By working with the existing character of Hanzheng Street rather than clearing it away, the project makes the district easier to move through while giving its streets and public spaces a stronger role in contemporary urban life.
Birgu’s Living Piazza
By Studjurban, Birgu, Malta
Special Mention, 14th A+Awards, Urban & Masterplan
Restored statues and carefully placed greenery add to the character of the space without competing with its historic surroundings. With places to sit, meet and linger, Piazza Vittoriosa gives residents a more comfortable public square while allowing community traditions to continue at the heart of Birgu.
Pedestrian Zone Slavonski Brod
By Rechner architects, Slavonski Brod, Croatia
From these observations came a new promenade with a clear, regular ground pattern, contemporary furniture and warm lighting. Its restrained palette allows the surrounding façades, shop windows and street life to remain visually prominent, while the open layout gives people room to move, meet and linger. Rather than prescribing a single way to use the space, the redesign leaves room for everyday routines and future changes. The new pedestrian zone brings a calmer rhythm to the center of Slavonski Brod while keeping its public life at the forefront.
The 15th Architizer A+Awards has officially launched! Seize the lowest pricing of the season by entering before October 23rd, 2026. Learn more →
The post After the Highway: 8 Architectural Projects Returning the City to Its Residents appeared first on Journal.