SAT-A07 - Raising the Bar on Creative Placemaking; A Vibrant Transformation in Virginia Beach

Saturday, November 20, 2021

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM CDT

Location: Music City Center, Room 105

Compliments of:

1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AIA/HSW, AICP, FL, NY/HSW

Lead Speaker(s)

Emily Archer, ASLA

Urban Designer
City of Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Speaker(s)

Kate Pittman

Executive Director
ViBe Creative District
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Nathan Lahy, ASLA

Nathan Lahy, PLA, ASLA
Orbis Landscape Architecture
Portsmouth, Virginia

1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AIA/HSW, AICP, FL, NY/HSW

150 artists, 50 businesses, 5 years, and 1 pandemic. This session explores what it took to transform an overlooked area behind Virginia Beach’s oceanfront into a thriving, inclusive creative district. Strategies for establishing, cultivating, and maintaining a successful arts district through challenges like roadway construction, bureaucracy and a pandemic will be discussed.

Learning Outcomes:

Learn about the short history of Virginia Beach’s ViBe Creative District and the challenges associated with establishing place, navigating bureaucracy, surviving road construction, and maintaining energy during a pandemic.
Understand how planning guidance, public/private partnerships, and incentives were utilized to achieve urban redevelopment, reclaim green spaces, and foster small business success.
Illustrate how the ViBe District has created a sense of place, formed synergy among artists, established alternative and authentic tourism opportunities and increased interactions among residents and businesses.
Discuss the incorporation of art into infrastructure, creating beauty in leftover spaces and equitable community engagement in the arts.