Connecting El Paso | El Paso, TX

Connecting El Paso was the first project in an ongoing collaboration with Dover Kohl & Partners where Street Plans provided transportation, urban design, and digital media services for the City of El Paso. 

 

Following the approval of the SmartCode Ordinance in 2008, the City sought to jumpstart implementation of the code in coordination with the expansion of the city wide bus rapid transit (BRT) system. From suburban big box malls at Remcon Circle, to a brownfield site at the former ASARCO plant, master plan locations were chosen based on their location along the BRT lines. The sites were master planned during a design charrette, and individual SmartCode applications were produced in the months that followed. 

 

Street Plans played multiple roles on the team, from branding services to designing and operating the project website. While on charrette, Street Plans took the lead in producing the Five Points infill master plan, which identified improved circulation patterns around the Five Points intersection, as well as numerous infill redevelopment opportunity sites around the soon-to-be constructed BRT transfer station. 

 

Following the charrette, Street Plans was asked to produce the SmartCode applications for the former ASARCO plant, based on designs that were produced during the charrette. Hugging the US/Mexico border, and fraught with controversy, the ASARCO plant has been closed for over a decade, but holds tremendous redevelopment potential. The Smart Code application was approved in 2011 and the site is currently undergoing remediation.