Conferences and Learning

Stitching Urban Fabric: Reconnecting Communities Through Infrastructure Transformation

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Certification Maintenance

CM | 0.75

Course Details

Cities and communities across the United States have long been divided by highway and rail infrastructure. Understanding how removing, reorganizing, and reimagining physical infrastructure can reconnect communities, foster inclusivity, and create dynamic public destinations is vital for our cities’ future growth.

The City of New Rochelle, New York, has been at the forefront of urban revitalization for the last decade, redefining its downtown and unlocking underutilized potential for development through zoning reform. This momentum has fueled the next phase of development, extending the energy beyond the downtown and connecting historically segregated neighborhoods to the downtown core.

Using infrastructure as a catalyst, presenters explore two key projects at the heart of this transformation:

  • The reorganized, pedestrian-oriented New Rochelle Transit Center that became a vibrant destination; and
  • The LINC, which converts a highway overpass into an eight-acre oasis that will restore connections and create dynamic community gathering spaces.

Presenters — who include urban designers, landscape architects, city officials, and community engagement leaders — probe the role of infrastructure in city building and ask how to leverage infrastructure to connect, amplify, and celebrate community.

 

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify key barriers in existing infrastructure that contribute to community disconnection and propose targeted strategies to remove or repurpose them to foster social equity and improve neighborhood cohesion.
  • Design infrastructure interventions that transform underutilized or divisive spaces into vibrant, accessible public destinations that reflect community identity and support inclusive, multimodal connectivity.
  • Evaluate case studies of successful infrastructure removal and improvement projects in order to extract transferable principles and apply them to local planning initiatives that prioritize reconnection, resilience, and placemaking.