These essays examine how commercial corridors hold together: the mix of everyday uses, the reuse of existing buildings, and the people and organizations that care for a district. Explore the ideas behind the Functional Diversity Diagnostic, or see how they inform Rhize’s corridor strategy, property reuse, and district stewardship work.
11 pieces
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First In: A Tribute to Artists. (You Are Valuable.)
The opening essay in First In, Not Pushed Out.
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The Midwest’s Second Act, Part V: "But Parking"
How parking requirements reshaped legacy cities- and why a mix of destinations matters more than a surplus of spaces.
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The Midwest's Second Act, Part 4: The Soil, Not the Seed
Why even a corridor of beloved boutiques can be fragile, and how a broader mix of everyday uses helps a street withstand shocks.
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The Midwest's Second Act, Part 3: The Rise of the New Merchant Class
Makers, curators, and local technology builders are finding opportunity in the small storefronts and distinctive buildings legacy cities kept.
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The Midwest’s Second Act, Part 2: When the Banks Finished What the Highways Started
A look at the lending rules and credit-tenant system that favored national chains and made independent merchants harder to back.
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The Midwest’s Second Act, Part 1: The Errand Run We're Still Mourning
The narrow storefronts, upstairs uses, and local merchants that made an everyday errand run part of a resilient urban economy.
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What is an Asset? Part 2: Office Buildings.
Reflections from a Washington, DC bike ride on “Office to Anything” and new purposes for offices that cannot easily become housing.
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What is an Asset? Part Three: Single-Use Retail Buildings.
From mall nostalgia to new uses: how microlofts, town centers, and entertainment spaces can bring single-use retail buildings back into community life.
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What is an Asset? Part 4 (final, maybe): Industrial
The vulnerability of single-use industrial buildings, and examples of adaptive reuse that make room for a mix of businesses and community uses.
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Membership and the Missing "Munus"
What Wendell Berry’s idea of membership asks of us: shared responsibility, mutual care, and active stewardship of the places we call home.
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Why Mixed-Use Fails When It’s Just a Label
Why ground-floor commercial space needs an early strategy rooted in local businesses and neighborhood relationships, rather than being treated as an afterthought.
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