Wilton Manors Archives

The conceptual design for this project sought to capitalize on several opportunities to:

rethinking Wilton Drive’s role in the community,
giving it a new vision while respecting its small-town character, and
turning it into a significant destination and elevate its design offerings with better branding.

In order to meet this vision, CGA’s approach was to develop a design that fundamentally sought to highlight ‘place-making’ and social character. While an understanding of the traffic engineering constraints was important, our belief was that it should not be the sole driving force behind the design, and the project should be about more than just making the corridor visually attractive. Therefore, our approach:

encouraged local community identity over generic design solutions; instead it strategized ways to create places that responded to needs of the residents and helped with community cohesion;
remained socially connected by understanding that Wilton Drive was not just a roadway, but rather a spine at the social heart and the cultural center of the City. It focused on how people could use the space for everyday activities and for special events, how it could be flexible and adaptable, and how it interacted with adjacent areas to encourage walkability, ease of access and comfort;
improved the longer-term “livability”, management and maintenance of the built streetscape environment, including all aspects of its ‘public realm’, to ensure spaces can remain relevant, clean, safe and green;
contributed to the achievement of sustainable development by integrating ‘green’ stormwater systems, respected historic context, capitalized on resources, and responded to needs of adaptability; and
delivered value, focused on a design process that was shaped around issues of quality, efficiency and overall sustainability.

As an effort to plan for the future of the city’s urban form, CGA investigated the form and density of the city’s past development to perceive what uncapitalized availability and intensity allowances still existed. The Urban Form & Density Study developed strategies for density increasement while controlling building form with requirements that not only served to protect the perception of the village-character that Wilton Manors is recognized for but also to protect the scale of the abutting single-family use, while increasing the quality-of-life conditions that lack throughout the City.

CGA developed and performed a public engagement strategy to gauge the public’s interests through a series of outreach meetings that communicated to the residents the team’s findings. CGA secured valuable input on how and where the City may be looking to increase intensity. Lastly, CGA was able to demonstrate how opportunities of economic, urban development can be implemented throughout the City. All these critical points were overwhelmingly approved by the City and a majority of the residents. The success of the approval process relied on the extensiveness of the public outreach process and its extensive use of detailed illustrations of development scenarios and design guidelines that clearly communicated the intent of the plan.