March 18, GGLO hosted the final event in a seven month panel discussion series on transit-oriented communities (TOC). The series was the first phase of a partnership between Seattle non-profit group Futurewise and GGLO to develop a “Blueprint for Transit-Oriented Communities.”Each session in the series addressed a specific TOC-related topic, with a panel of local experts leading the discussion. The information and insight generated in the panel discussions will be compiled and synthesized to create the stand-alone Blueprint document, which is intended to provide inspiration and guidance for high-quality TOC, and to serve as an advocacy manual for station area planning and development. Stay tuned for further developments on the Blueprint, including a formal launch in early Fall 2009.
Last Wednesday’s panel focused on lessons learned from great transit-oriented communities, and attempted to address the question: Where do we go from here? Panel speakers included GGLO’s own David Cutler, along with the nationally recognized TOC expert GB Arrington of PB Placemaking in Portland, and Dan Rosenfeld of Urban Partners, a firm with extensive transit-oriented development experience in the Los Angeles area.
About 50 people attended the session, held in GGLOSPACE on the Steps, GGLO’s event space off of Harbor Steps at First and University downtown. The firm offers the space as an event venue to groups who are contributing to the discussion on urbanism and design in Seattle. Future events include the Seattle Great City Initiative lunch forum series, and the People’s Waterfront Coalition waterfront planning sessions. For more information contact Dan Bertolet.