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PROJECT TYPES

Downtowns

Downtowns belong to everybody and fundamentally shape their cities' reputations. Our downtown plans have fostered vitality and resilience within communities of every size.

Transit Oriented Developments

The first rule of planning is to bring density to transit and to bring transit to density. From Long Island to Indiana to Utah, we’ve led plans to locate new neighborhoods on rail and integrate bus service into community streets.

New Towns & Neighborhoods

Building towns and neighborhoods from scratch is where we cut our teeth and remains a mainstay of our work. Several of these, like Rosemary Beach, Florida, and Heulebrug, Belgium, have upended conventional practice and established new benchmarks in sustainable greenfield development.

Urban & Suburban Infill

Most communities have missing teeth ready for new construction. Building on them properly is the essence of smart growth.

Suburban Retrofit

Transforming car-centric locations with pedestrian-friendly site plans is a focal strategy in our work.

Walkability Studies

We invented the Walkability Study in 2009 and have since completed over a dozen across the United States.

Streets & Networks

The design of a city's streets is often all that stands in the way of a more walkable future. Our street plans have brought struggling downtowns back to life.

Buildings & Landscapes

Walkable public spaces are shaped in the vertical dimension by buildings and trees that turn them into outdoor living rooms. In addition to streetscapes and urban forestry plans, we design landmark buildings for key sites within our projects.

Walkable City Talks

Jeff Speck’s carefully honed and locally customized talks are renowned for their wisdom and humor, and even more so for the ways in which they inspire communities to imagine and embrace positive change.

PROJECT EXAMPLES

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Oklahoma City Project 180
The Salt Lake City region has seen a tremendous investment in transit, but not much of the resulting station area development has been truly walkable. Utah City aims to make...

Utah City

Vineyard, UT, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“I saw firsthand a shift in people’s perception of what our downtown could be. And now that the plan is being set in motion, we are seeing brand new, vibrant...

Hammond Downtown Plan

Hammond, IN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
A controversial proposal to surround a recreational trail with a multimodal avenue quickly wins converts and unites a downtown.

Monon Boulevard

Carmel, IN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
The city has exploded with new recreation and food venues. The demographics of our City have changed so much with the influx of young adults starting their careers; downtown feels...

Project 180

Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
The River District, which expands downtown Elkhart eastward into an underutilized post-industrial zone, has moved quickly from planning to implementation.

River District

Elkhart, IN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“It really is incredible to see the change, to go from 55 acres of flat parking to the amazing community here. . . a world class walkable neighborhood.” — Mayor...

Water Street

Tampa, FL, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
In one of the most dramatic and complete examples of suburban retrofit, an historic Michigan village rebuilds half its downtown to replace a strip mall with a walkable main street...

Envision Ada

Ada Township, MI, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
Now well into implementation, the plan for downtown Wyandanch replaces empty lots, decrepit buildings, and surface parking lots with a walkable, mixed-use town center.

Wyandanch Rising

Babylon, NY, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
A public/private land swap and street reconfiguration create a new heart for the Square.

Kenmore Squared

Boston, MA, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“Jeff Speck’s Downtown Evolution Plan got community leaders and stakeholders to see potential opportunities that otherwise might have been missed. It also helped motivate the City to restore two-way traffic...

Lowell Downtown Evolution Plan

Lowell, MA, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“There are more people walking around... I see more people walking dogs, strolling with babies, running, eating dinner, etc... downtown on sidewalks and in the streets.” — Kate Rosenbarger, New...

New Albany Street Network Redesign

New Albany, IN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
Rosemary Beach may be the most aesthetically and commercially successful new town of the New Urbanism movement.

Rosemary Beach

South Walton, FL, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“This structure is a physical manifestation of a powerful partnership developed over time between a local community looking to better its circumstances and the largest commuter railroad in the country.”...

Wyandanch Stair Tower

Babylon, NY, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“[The project] is taking an underdeveloped shopping center and parking lots, converting them to parks, and connecting [them] to the existing Barton Creek Trail. There’s just no project like it.”...

Brodie Oaks

Austin, TX, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“One-way conversions are a critical piece to making [the downtown] feel like a place where you would want to live and walk around and feel safe.” — Jennifer Pratt, Community...

Cedar Rapids Downtown Streets

Cedar Rapids, IA, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“ReLeaf Cedar Rapids is a visionary plan to build back the 669,000 trees—70 percent of our tree canopy—that was lost. It requires significant investment of resources, but the impact of...

ReLeaf Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids, IA, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“Speck Dempsey’s plan for downtown Mansfield will help turn our Main Street from a place to drive through into a vibrant destination for people.” — Matt Jones, Assistant City Manager

Main & Broad Streets Redesign

Mansfield, TX, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
Emboldened by the MBTA Communities Act, a suburban downtown overrun with cut-through traffic redesigns itself around increased housing density and safer streets.

Watertown Square Area Plan

Watertown, MA, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
"Speck Dempsey responded quickly to a tragedy with a design that dramatically improved the safety and appeal of Frazier Avenue. They have been a strong partner to RPA and the...

Frazier Avenue Tactical Rebuild

Chattanooga, TN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“To be able to pull off this mix of uses and architectural diversity—we really have four distinct neighborhoods—plus the parks, connection to open space, and a commercial area, is impressive.”...

Bradburn Village

Westminster, Colorado, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
“[This is] a vision and a development unlike anything that you’ve seen in Indiana… I just can’t say enough how excited I am about the potential, what this is going...

Grand Park Sports Culture District

Westfield, IN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
"Collaborating with the Speck Dempsey team to create a plan and framework for future redevelopment within the Fishers Nickel Plate District was a transformative experience. We are since applying their...

Downtown Master Plan Update

Fishers, IN, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
A community-driven approach leverages design, infrastructure, policy, and engagement strategies to curb traffic violence in the “Heart of Massachusetts.”

Vision Zero Safety Action Plan

Worcester, MA, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
After many years of piecemeal improvements to its dangerous downtown street network, the Bourbon City approves a comprehensive restriping and re-signalization to bring safety and vitality back to its heart.

Louisville Downtown & NuLu Walkability Plan

Louisville, KY, USA

Oklahoma City Project 180
A downtown street safety plan heads towards construction in a state where such projects have historically been thwarted.

Downtown Scranton Connectivity Plan

Scranton, PA, USA

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