Over the course of the semester, students spoke with residents, visitors and organizations involved in Grand Center, as well as professionals in the fields of real estate development, public policy, public art, architecture and urban design. Students drew upon their mapping analysis and these conversations (and from existing plans completed for the area over the past few years) to create a set of goals that informed a new framework proposal for the district. The framework then formed the basis for individual speculative student design proposals on selected sites that explore formal approaches to ideas within the framework. Based on the porosity of and urban grain of the site, create a diversity of community include both students and mid-class residents through an interactive strategy between landscape and housings.
Ophelia Ji (2026) studied this question.