one neighborhood at a time: a regeneration strategy

portsmouth, virginia

one neighborhood at a timeA Regeneration Strategy

© 2 0 1 1 u r b a n d e s i g n a s s o c i a t e s

Cities are never finished. Settlement happens, sites are chosen for their natural and strategic advantages, buildings built, and industry churns. Communities grow over time, ushering in change with each generation that grows up with them. While growth and decline is part of a natural order, the most resilient places constantly invest and reinvest, invent and reinvent, and do so neighborhood by neighborhood. Portsmouth is such a place.

Urban Design Associates

olde towne

Our neighborhoods are made up of buildings built on the heritage of what came before.

Our neighborhoods are made up of buildings built on the heritage of what came before.

Sustainable urban regeneration

begins in our neighborhoods.

westbury: 1997–2005 hope vi

If we go outside we can go in the backyard,

and ride our bikes and sit on the front porch.

This is ours.

Marquia Eley, Resident

“”

Regenerating neighborhoods

is first a local movement

that then leverages local and

national resources.

westbury: 2005–2010 hope vi

arts & crafts

GeorGian

colonial revival

victorian

Greek revival

classical

Resources are targeted to build back

neighborhoods that connect to local

heritage by using a local Pattern Book

vocabulary for houses, apartments,

parks, and walkable streets.

seaboard square: 2011

olde towne reGenerated neiGhborhoods recent urban desiGn associates/portsmouth reGeneration efforts

Cities are never finished. Each neighborhood that comes back into bloom brings with it the seed for the next generation, the next neighborhood.

special thanks to all involved who helped build one neighborhood at a time

The residents of Ida Barbour, Jeffry Wilson, and surrounding neighborhoods within Portsmouth

Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority The City of Portsmouth, Virginia

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Cornerstone Housing, LLC Chesapeake Community Advisors

Horton & Dodd, P.C. LaQuatra Bonci Associates Dills Architects

project information

The City of Portsmouth and Urban Design Associates have worked together since 1995 incrementally regrowing urban neighborhoods as the primary means to strengthen the city’s urban core. Through this partnership, the collaboration between the city and the design team has produced measurable results and a clear vision for future engagements. Westbury and Seaboard Square were developed under the HOPE VI program. They total 72 acres of redevelopment and nearly 1,000 new housing units that utilize existing infrastructure, is close to employment and education centers, and reinforce the unique identity of Portsmouth’s built heritage.