streetchat

Now showing at Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum, ‘Coming Together: Reimagining America’s Downtowns’ explores how US cities have renewed and reactivated their centres since Covid-19. Curated by Georgetown University urban planning professor Uwe Brandes and designed by Reddymade, the exhibition showcases creative approaches to public space, walkability and mixed-use revitalisation. Multimedia installations, maps and case studies from more than 60 US cities show adaptations of the past five years – with empty offices turned into housing, reallocating street lanes for parklets and ‘streateries,’ and remaking sidewalks as gathering spaces. Thematic galleries – Social Distancing, Cities Take Charge and City Action Hall – reflect the shock of the pandemic and creative responses that followed. As visitors traverse the exhibition, they are invited to reflect: how hollowed-out downtowns of 2020 gave way …