Trend Watch: Reflecting on Downtown Activations Since Covid

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 to renewed urban energy, and how the strategies cities adopted then continue to shape a more active, inclusive future. Space is also provided for people to discuss how cities can be shaped for a future that reflects their community’s needs.

See an exhibition review by Linda Poon in CityLab.

Photo: Installation view of ‘Coming Together.’ Courtesy of the National Building Museum.