City and Regional Planning Research/Outreach
Check out our Annual Reports to see recent research and outreach highlights.
Memphis Music Magnet / Memphis Slim Collaboratory
Faculty and students worked with community partners and industry stakeholders on the development of the Memphis Music Magnet. The plan builds on the cultural assets and heritage of the Soulsville USA neighborhood and seeks to create a community where music and art tell stories, activate spaces, reclaim vacant buildings, create interaction, and connect neighbors new and old. The university-community partnership has received significant external funding including a $678,000 grant from ArtPlace, a national consortium of philanthropic foundations. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO) engaged in a yearlong residency in the Soulsville neighborhood with programming that included a series of unique musical collaborations performed in currently vacant community spaces, mentoring at neighborhood schools, programs for youth and seniors, and leadership training for area neighborhood associations. To host the MSO concerts and other cultural activities, a vacant grocery store at a key neighborhood location was reimagined and repurposed as a temporary performance venue. The kickoff event at the venue featured Soulsville native and soul legend Booker T. Jones alongside the symphony and youth performers from the Stax Music Academy.
The Memphis Slim Collaboratory opened in April 2014 during the annual Stax to the Max festival. The former home of blues legend Memphis Slim was redeveloped as a music-centered community space for artistic collaboration, music training and storytelling. Members of Slim's family came from Chicago and California to attend the opening reception and honor the music legend. The membership-based Collaboratory, managed by two full-time staff, is equipped with video-casting rooms to record oral histories, and is anchored by a recording studio. The studio is run on a cooperative basis to support emerging artists as well as apprentices learning the production business. The building was designed by br3gs Architects and has been recognized with numerous awards, including: American Institute of Architect's TN Award of Merit, Builder Magazine's Builder's Choice Award, and American-Architect's Building of the Week. Grant funding from ArtPlace America and the Kresge Foundation supported the redevelopment and staffing of the Collaboratory.
Bike friendly university technical review
Memphis' Bikeway/Pedestrian Program Manager and University of Memphis planning alumnus,
Kyle Wagenschutz, led a 2014 Project Planning Studio course focused on bicycling improvements
in and around the university. Students prepared an application to the League of American
Bicyclists (LAB) to certify the University of Memphis as a Bike Friendly University
and developed a set of short-term and long-term recommendations. The classroom approach
to preparing the BFU application has been adopted as a best practice by LAB and has
become a model for other universities.
West Memphis EcoPark
Awarded a Memphis Regional Greenprint Plan planning sub-grant, the Department partnered with the City of West Memphis to complete plans for the West Memphis EcoPark. The Spring 2014 Project Planning Studio course guided the process of planning for a greenspace amenity on undeveloped land at the western terminus of the Harahan Bridge. The EcoPark is designed to complement Big River Crossing, which will convert a portion of the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi into a bicycle and pedestrian pathway.
Brownsville on the Move: A Comprehensive Plan for Creating a More Vibrant, Sustainable, and Just Community
Comprehensive Plan:
Vance Avenue Collaborative
- Vance Avenue Community Transformation Plan
- Vance Avenue Renaissance Plan (prepared by the Neighborhood Subcommittee)
- Preliminary Planning Framework
- Data Book