There is an epidemic of underperforming urban transportation corridors in the United States today. What should be the lifeblood of cities typically are over-engineered roadways with excessive capacity for cars, designed primarily for vehicles, flanked by aging retail, rarely accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians, and thrusting them into an unsafe and uncomfortable biking and environments. The nature of retail (large discount retailers versus mom and pop stores, and the growth of online shopping) has changed dramatically and impacted the environment of retail corridors. How can transportation corridors be transformed into places that are economically, environmentally, socially and aesthetically stimulating for their communities? Many cities are grappling with this question.

Design Workshop has had many opportunities in the past decade to partner with cities and developers to focus on urban transportation corridors - in St. Louis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Houston and Tahoe, to name a few. The firm emphasizes a comprehensive approach to design and planning. Project teams set quantifiable goals at the outset of each effort and measure implemented outcomes to determine success. We have gained a great deal of knowledge about urban transportation corridors and have measured their performance as a result of design interventions. However, the design inquiry frequently uncovers further research and unanswered questions that linger after a project concludes. Discussions with the public, the client or elected officials trigger questions where evidence would have been very valuable. These questions include:

1. What are the impacts of design on urban heat island effect? What is the cumulative effect of using low-albedo materials and increasing tree canopy to provide shade? Can the cumulative effect be predicted and measured or do we just pick low-albedo materials and plant trees and hope? 
2. How can urban wildlife be affected through landscape design in an urban environment? How can it be measured? Is there any benefit to increasing the number of species and specimens on an urban street? Can an urban street be considered "habitat" for anything other than humans? Research also could be one on certain cases where urban wildlife populations (for example, squirrels, possums, raccoons, birds) exceed populations in the wild and become a conflict with human and traffic uses.
3. What is the relationship of on-street parking to retail success?
4. What is the relationship of tree canopy to retail visibility?
5. What is the relationship of traffic speed to retail success? 
6. Is there a volume at which traffic actually detracts from retail success? When it gets so difficult to get in and out of a retail setting, do sales decline or is more always better?
7. What works better for retail - one-way streets or two-way streets - and why? There has been some research on this that could be tracked down and validated in the field.
8. What are the best methods for reducing noise in retail transportation corridors? One way is to slow down traffic. Do noise attenuation walls, vegetation, rubberized asphalt, etc. have an impact at this scale? 
9. At what time does one conclude that historic traffic volumes will not return and roads are in need of lane reductions? How does this relate to depreciation of public infrastructure?

These questions are highly relevant and valuable to the practice of landscape architecture and the health of urban environments.

The objective of this Master's Project is to comprehensively examine the impacts of design interventions on a struggling retail corridor in a city within driving distance of Detroit. Using Design Workshop (DW) projects and processes as models, and researching other precedents, the student team will study these questions about corridor performance. The comprehensiveness of the inquiry will require students from a broad spectrum of disciplines.  

Kurt Culbertson, Chairman of the Board and a Principal in the Aspen office of Design Workshop, has extensive experience designing and measuring outcomes in retail corridors. He will advise the student team, help them to define a problem statement and pose questions that will be proven over the course of the study, and counsel them in the development of methodologies for measurement. Mr. Culbertson will travel to Ann Arbor one time over the course of the research project and will participate via Skype call with the research team monthly during the course of the study. Design Workshop will advise the students on purchasing a kit of inexpensive and readily available measurement tools for gauging noise levels, temperatures, speed and light levels. A Design Workshop designer will be identified to lead a graphic design and publishing workshop to help the team with the visual representation of quantified research and data gathered. The student team will produce a professional and graphically sophisticated final product with accompanying visuals that help to tell the story of the study.  

DW will post the final document on the firm's website and will assist the student team in submitting new methodologies and calculator tools to the online Benefits Toolkit developed by Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF).