Citizens for the Revitalization of Temple Terrace

Latest News August 5, 2002

August 5 2002:  The Temple Terrace City Council has wisely decided to accept the offer of Andres Duany, internationally acclaimed designer/architect, to make a public presentation about his firm, DPZ, and his potential involvement in the creation of a master plan for the SE Quadrant of Busch and 56th Street.  Mr. Duany is one of the founders of New Urbanism, and author of the book, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.  Andres Duany of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company  will make a presentation at the Lightfoot Recreational Center, 10901 56th Street on Thursday, August 22nd, 2002 at 7:00 PM.

Mr. Duany developed the comprehensive master plan for the city of West Palm Beach and is currently working on a similar plan for Madiera Beach.  Although most of his work for WPB had to do with the downtown and waterfront areas, the developers and architects of CityPlace followed the guidelines in Duany's plan. For example, CityPlace is shown only as a "vacant church" under a Type III (medium building) regulating plan, but that church was converted into a beautiful theatre, the centerpiece of the final development (see picture below). Among Duany's other credits are Seaside in Florida, which also has a theatre; Mashpee Commons on Cape Cod, which includes a bank and a post office along with private residences, offices and retail establishments and the 5^th Ave. S. shopping district in Old Naples.     

We believe that creating design guidelines for the SE Quadrant is a critical step, and our city must involve citizens in this process. Temple Terrace may benefit greatly from Mr. Duany's expertise in advancing the planning and design process, just as Kevin Lawler illuminated the financial path. Mr. Lawler’s presentation in May gave us an idea of the costs and risks of the downtown revitalization project, yet he did not take the opportunity, nor was he asked, to provide a visual display as he did this past September at his first workshop with the city. Nothing much has happened in the way of design and planning in the months since then.  

Right now we have only a financial blueprint for the SE quadrant, and we do not have a cohesive plan or a clear picture of what it is going to look like when it is finished. 

Mr. Duany may help to answer many of our questions about the integration of public and private buildings in developing the proposed site,  help us make decisions on sizes and types of buildings and the relationships between civic functions, private residences, pedestrian pathways and green spaces.   Our city must have public involvement in design charettes and workshops in order to develop a more complete master plan. It may produce a vision with only an outside chance of working economically.   Regardless, we desperately need to create and impose design, code and regulatory guidelines in a feasible plan for this project to work. We must have professional guidance and citizen involvement.

A major principle of New Urbanism has to do with pedestrian areas designed for people who live close to where they work. In high-traffic areas it may be necessary to modify the New Urbanist neighborhood approach, since it is unlikely that the city will be able to decrease the presence of automobile traffic at that intersection when we take into account the widened “race track” aesthetics of the new Bullard Parkway. 

Many of us believe that Temple Terrace needs a viable design plan beyond the 17-acre site. We often hear talk about changing the look of all four corners of that major intersection. Perhaps now is the time, and Mr. Duany is the one, to begin the process that will eventually take us beyond the currently not-so-friendly confines of that notorious SE Quadrant.