Waterside District: A Comeback Story

This month our project Waterside District in Norfolk, VA was featured in ICSC’s SCT Magazine as an example of “Restorative Retail” It’s an example of how we can use design, proper merchandising, and land-use policies to create vibrant destinations that flourish despite the ‘Amazon-age.’

The redevelopment of the Waterside Festival Marketplace by the Cordish Companies is a process that could be repeated in other waterfront markets throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region and beyond. Originally developed by the Rouse Company in the 1980’s, the marketplace had fallen into disuse after several failed attempts to revitalize the center. The Cordish Companies acquired the building after a successful bid responding to an RFP by the City of Norfolk. Aside from the opportunity to control the building, the developer was successful in negotiating the use of the boardwalk and adjacent land for future development.

The Market, Food Hall Anchor

Many of the uses of the entertainment complex required a negotiation with the state alcoholic beverage commission to allow for the uninhibited consumption of alcoholic beverages on the premises. BCT provided exhibits and renderings to indicate how control would be maintained differently than prescribed rules required. This resulted in the appearance of a freer atmosphere of social consumption throughout the development.

The entire project design was required to be vetted through the city’s Architecture Review Board process. The hearing includes the review of building design, signage, landscaping, streetscape, and historic concerns. BCT presented the redevelopment, including the demolition of a portion of the historic building, and was approved with applause. This comprehensive process has culminated in an almost fully leased development within two-years, going from a completely empty retail center to a fully-activated, unique, and iconic offering within the Hampton Roads region.

You can find the feature article link below:

City Dock Action Committee

Over the past nine months we’ve had the opportunity to be apart of an unprecedented and historic opportunity for the City of Annapolis. In response to the NTHP’s designation of City Dock as an endangered site, and the last ULI Baltimore TAP ‘Reclaiming a Local and National Treasure’ City Dock, The City of Annapolis and Historic Annapolis have banded together like never before to create the City Dock Action Committee. They have assembled a group of experts and stakeholders to lead an extensive outreach effort into the community and to prepare an implementation strategy moving forward. We have had the honor of engaging the public through workshops and community meetings to create a framework for the city to ‘Take Action’ at City Dock.

It was a full roster Tuesday night with two separate public presentations, the first being a public Action Committee Workshop, and the second a Ward One Community Presentation. BCT along with Wilson Hammond, Hord Coplan Macht, Moody Graham, Michael J. Dowling, and others presented the latest Consensus Plan that took all nine Action Committee teams’ comments, considerations, and recommendations into consideration to develop an actionable plan.

The nine Action Committee Teams:

• Design/ Placemaking

• Financial Tools/Development

• Programming/Community Access

• Parking/Pedestrian and Bike Connections

• Maritime

• Resiliency

• Burtis House

• Business/Property Owners and Retail

• Community Benefits, Character, and Livability

Bryce Turner delivering the Consensus Plan to Ward One Residents Association, Tuesday, 09.17.19

The overall community reception to the ideas presented was a positive one, with many citizens giving thanks to all the committee members for their effort put forth thus far. BCT is thrilled and humbled to have participated in such a historic committee. Following these latest meetings, all teams will go back and make their final recommendations which will be consolidated into a final report. This report will then be handed over to Historic Annapolis and the City of Annapolis to create an RFQ to implement the Action Committee’s final recommendations. The Action Committee is definitely on its way to reclaiming City Dock for the Citizen of Annapolis.

Designing the Waterfront!

Our waterfront experience crosses the spectrum – from single-family custom-designed houses in Florida, to an exclusive resort on Kuta Bay in Bali, to waterfront redevelopment on Wardie Bay in Edinburgh, Scotland, and of course, the design of several waterfront mixed-use developments around our inner harbor in Baltimore. The diversity of projects, both in region and in magnitude, has given us the unique opportunity to provide developers with creative designs that are both distinctive and efficient functionally. We are not a “formula-driven” firm – rather, we strive to create designs that re-think and re-shape the old rules into innovative and bold works that are at the cutting edge of design. It is this perspective, that every project presents a fresh challenge – a new possibility – to re-shape the way we experience architecture, that is the foundation of our award-winning success.