Over 70 neighborhood leaders, property owners, business representatives and government officials gathered on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, to re-imagine the Broadway Corridor between Fifth Avenue and I-640.

They met in a “design charrette” organized by the East Tennessee Community Design Center.  A design charrette is defined as a period of intense discussion among stakeholders and designers to develop solutions to defined problems.

The gathering was the result of many months of work by the Broadway Corridor Task Force, which is composed of representatives from the North Knoxville Business & Professional Association, as well as the neighborhood organizations in the Belle Morris, Edgewood Park, Fairmont-Emoriland, Fourth & Gill, Oakwood Lincoln Park, and Old North Knoxville neighborhoods.

For this work, the Design Center was retained by the City of Knoxville’s Community Development Department which, along with the Office of Neighborhoods, has been meeting monthly with the Task Force since early 2014.

To kick off the charrette, Leslie Fawaz, studio director for the Design Center, presented this slide show. She noted that the Center chose to focus on just one section of Broadway --- from Hall of Fame Drive to Branson Avenue --- but explained that this section contains many of the challenges and assets typical of the entire corridor south of I-640.

The challenges, she said, include many shuttered and blighted properties, difficulty for pedestrians attempting to negotiate sidewalks or cross heavily traveled Broadway, numerous curb cuts, and vehicles backing into traffic from shallow parking spaces.

On the other hand, Fawaz and others noted, the Corridor has many assets including historic and walkable neighborhoods with strong neighborhood organizations, several  longtime businesses, historic churches, the First Creek Greenway, Fulton High School, the Boys & Girls Club, the city’s arts and crafts center, and proximity to a thriving downtown.

Fawaz also walked the participants through a survey of their visual preferences for the corridor, covering items such as building setbacks, street profiles, parking, business signage, neighborhood entrances, corridor gateways, sidewalks, crosswalks, street trees, bus stops, and lighting and power lines.

After viewing the slide show, you can take this same survey here.

Following the introduction and survey, the charrette participants broke into small groups to think through how they would envision the corridor in the future. 

Poring over maps of Broadway, the participants generated ideas for improving the corridor for businesses, nearby residents and commuters. A small sampling of the ideas generated:
• Reduce curb cuts to better define the relationship between pedestrians and vehicles.
• Rework the banks of First Creek into a “garden corridor” and make it the focal point for the area.
• Plant trees.
• Expand the bus stop at Broadway Shopping Center (the third busiest bus stop in town) to better accommodate bikes and pedestrians.
• Repair sidewalks.
• Create more appealing entrances into the adjacent neighborhoods.
• Build a footbridge across Broadway to help senior citizens and students.
• Move parking from Broadway to the back of buildings where feasible.
• Better utilize the space in Broadway Shopping Center with new streets and store fronts.
• Help neighbors learn the pitfalls of predatory lending centers.
• Add a median to Broadway where feasible.
• Rebrand the area with a new identity, such as “North Knoxville Village,” and add entrance signs.

Utilizing input and ideas from the charrette, the Design Center will develop a Broadway Corridor Enhancement Plan which will be presented at a public meeting to be announced for a later date.

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