Asheville Bound: A Glimpse of Perfection
Melissa Hege, AICP of South Florida-based Melissa Hege City Planning LLC. takes a trip to Asheville, NC and shares what she learned about implementing smart and subtle, yet affordable urban design solutions.
And wowee, a super lushly landscaped bulb-out. This one was inexpensively constructed as a concrete planter box. Because it’s not attached to the sidewalk, it won’t interfere with the rainwater flow and the city’s stormwater infrastructure system. But the height, color, depth and varied textured of these plants makes this street feature especially effective at breaking up the sidewalk and asphalt and beautifying the street. My daughter approves.
Finally, what makes a city interesting is its variety of neighborhoods which are ripe for exploration. Here’s a little explorer checking out the River Arts District. A true and gritty arts district, this place has slowly evolved since the mid 1980s when these old brick 1920s warehouses were converted into artist quads. New sidewalks help really spiff up the street edge, and a simple, yet dramatic rough granite planter is just overflowing with color and texture. A nice juxtaposition with the old brick facade of the warehouse building.
Here’s another nice touch. The parking area is dressed up with additional planters with bold, architectural plantings and flowers–enticing enough for my daughter and her affinity for flowers.
A subtle branding is embedded in the sidewalk which is simple, inexpensive and effective– one line of bricks and a customized tile.
What I learned in Asheville:
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Good design can be simple and inexpensive.
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Spend money on the important details which embellish the unique qualities of your city. In Asheville that’s cafe seating, dual purpose market stands and decorative railings to delineate the sidewalks.
Asheville is proof that smart and subtle design can work well over flash with a high price tag.
Article originally posted by Melissa Hege, AICP at www.Melissahege.com.
Melissa Hege, AICP, LEED AP, practices planning and urban design in one of the Country’s most envied and envious iconic cities—the Republic of Miami. For more than a decade, she has enjoyed the juxtaposition of the region’s beauty and dysfunction, and continues to learn from it daily. Educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Brandeis University, her portfolio includes award winning plans which translate design based solutions into practical applications.
In her current practice, Melissa Hege City Planning, she straddles the roles of planner and community advocate by exploring infrastructure investments which add exponential value to cities. These include waterfront parks, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and complete streets—streets which have comfortable and protected zones for bicycles, pedestrians, cars, and transit. She is currently developing a waterfront pop-up installation on Miami’s Biscayne Bay to demonstrate the potential value of a permanently improved and connected waterfront trail in downtown Miami. Other recent projects include an interactive web based tool to visually track all multi-agency infrastructure improvements in downtown Miami and a Complete Streets forum for local municipalities in partnership with Miami Dade County.
Melissa is a board member of the Miami Modern (MIMO) Biscayne Boulevard Association, a 501c3 dedicated to preserving its architectural history and expanding commercial opportunities for this US-1 corridor. She is Past Chair of the Miami Section of the Florida American Planning Association, was Co-chair for the State’s annual conference and served on Miami-Dade County’s Transportation Aesthetic Review Committee. She has been published in the Miami Herald, Florida Planning, Planetizen and Panorama (University of Pennsylvania) and taught as an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University. She developed a planning curriculum for middle school students at the Cushman School and is a regular speaker at the Florida American Planning Association’s annual conference.</i>