Placemaking Week

As rapidly-growing cities wrestle with growing pains, how can private development consciously engage and meaningfully contribute to a city’s economic and cultural development? How can developers work with public, non-profit, and neighborhood partners to adopt a long-term transformational, instead of a short-term transactional mindset? Charlotte, NC is a booming New South city where the population doubles every 20 years, but it ranks at the bottom of national studies on economic mobility. Camp North End is a 75-acre historic industrial site which once produced Model Ts and US Army Missiles and is now transforming into a hub for innovation in the heart of Charlotte’s North End Smart District. Private, public, and neighborhood representatives close to this ambitious, adaptive-reuse project will share perspectives on how a thoughtful reimagining of physical space combined with intentional strategies for inclusion can create a welcoming place with win-wins for business and community.