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Revitalizing Urban Main Streets: St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans

A photograph of a dilapidated abandoned market that used to sell produce and seafood.

St. Roch Market, pictured here post-Hurricane Katrina, is seen as the centerpiece of the St. Claude Avenue Main Street District. The market's fate is seen as mirroring the fate of the surrounding area. (Image courtesy of quebella on flickr.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

11.439

As Taught In

Spring 2009

Level

Graduate

Cite This Course

Course Features

Course Description

This course focuses on the physical and economic renewal of urban neighborhood Main Streets by combining classroom work with an applied class project. The course content covers four broad areas:

  1. An overview of the causes for urban business district decline, the challenges faced in revitalization and the type of revitalization strategies employed;
  2. The physical and economic development planning tools used to understand and assess urban Main Streets from physical design and economic development perspectives;
  3. The policies, interventions, and investments used to foster urban commercial revitalization; and
  4. The formulation of a revitalization plan for an urban commercial district.