North Prospect
North Prospect is a large-scale urban redevelopment project on a former industrial brownfield, reimagined as a vibrant, mixed-use district that balances high-density growth with a human-centered public realm. The plan moves away from the mono-functional blocks of the past and instead organizes the site into three distinct but interconnected zones: the public promenade, the tech hub, and the residential corridor. At its heart is a wide pedestrian promenade that runs the length of the site, creating a continuous public room for commerce, leisure, and social interaction.
The Tech Hub zone occupies the northern portion of the site and is designed for R&D, light manufacturing, and office use. The architecture here uses a language of glass and metal with deep overhangs and permeable ground floors that open onto the promenade, blurring the boundary between work and public life. The Residential Corridor to the south provides a mix of housing types, from high-rise apartments to mid-rise co-living and terraced townhomes, with each block oriented toward the promenade or internal green spaces.
Development Zones
- The Promenade: A 20-meter-wide civic spine that activates the ground plane with retail, cafe seating, and a linear park with rain gardens and seating.
- The Tech Hub: A dense cluster of R&D and innovation buildings with shared labs, maker spaces, and a large public plaza for events.
- The Residential Corridor: A diverse mix of housing densities with varied facade treatments and internal courtyards that provide privacy and greenery.
Guiding Principles
The master plan is built on four core urbanist principles that define the character of the district:
- Walkability and Connectivity: Every building is anchored to the promenade, and the internal circulation is designed so that most trips can be made on foot. The promenade acts as the district's primary artery, prioritizing pedestrians over cars.
- Mixed-Use Vitality: Work, play, and living are woven together rather than separated. Retail and services are integrated into the ground floors of offices and residences to ensure the district remains active throughout the day and evening.
- Facade Diversity: The architecture avoids repetitive typologies by mandating varied materials, heights, and fenestration patterns for each block, giving the promenade a rich, human-scale texture.
- Ecological Resilience: The plan incorporates a comprehensive stormwater management system with bio-swales, green roofs on the tech buildings, and a commitment to biodiversity along the promenade’s planting beds.
Architectural Strategies
The architectural response is characterized by a move toward permeable and expressive forms. In the Tech Hub, the buildings use deep overhangs to provide shade and shelter for the promenade, while the retail frontages are designed with large glazing and recessed entrances to encourage browsing. The residential blocks employ a stepped massing approach, which breaks down the height of the taller buildings and creates terrace space for the units above.
Materiality varies by zone: the Tech Hub uses a palette of brushed aluminum and high-performance glass, while the residential corridor leans toward warmer textures like terracotta and timber cladding. This zoning of materiality helps to define the different functions of the site while maintaining a coherent overall palette. The promenade itself is paved with permeable pavers and lined with a mix of mature trees and native shrubs, creating a soft edge against the hard surfaces of the buildings.
Infrastructure and Mobility
Mobility in North Prospect is organized around a hierarchy that favors active transport and public transit. The site is bounded by a transit station, which is the primary destination for commuters. The promenade is fully pedestrianized, and a dedicated cycle lane runs parallel to it, connecting the different zones without conflict with pedestrians.
Parking is consolidated in a few peripheral garages rather than on-street, freeing up the streetscape for public life. The garages are designed with EV charging and car-share stations, and the plan includes a small logistics hub for deliveries to minimize the presence of service vehicles on the promenade. Green infrastructure is integrated throughout, with rain gardens and bio-swales managing runoff at the source and providing a continuous green thread through the district.
North Prospect is more than a housing development; it is a new urban neighborhood built on the principle that good urban form can reconcile density with quality of life. By centering the plan on the promenade, the district creates a shared public realm that belongs to everyone—a place where the tech worker, the resident, and the visitor can meet in a vibrant, walkable district.