The Correlation between Sustainability and Mixed-Use Developments: A Proposed Redevelopment for Ivy Corridor Phase II and a Case Study on 5 US Cities

Historically, the United States has overlooked mixed-use developments in favor of segregated use developments due to its unique history with use-based land regulations. For the technical capstone portion of this portfolio, my group was tasked with redesigning Phase II of the Ivy Corridor Development on UVA grounds. The main goals of this project were to create a site which included building space for residential, dining, and academic uses as well as an outdoor classroom and interactive stormwater feature. In order to accomplish this, we utilized our knowledge in site regrading, utility planning, transportation planning, stormwater modeling, sustainability analyses, and cost estimation. Collectively, we worked together to create a site that benefits all users while also abiding by the requirements and constraints of the project. For the STS portion of this portfolio I analyzed how multi-use developments are more sustainable as through the lens of the actor network theory (ANT). The ANT posits that all immaterial and material things (actors) exist together in a series of shifting relationships (networks) and a change to either the network or actor will cause a change in all other connected networks and actors. In order to begin this analysis, I chose the top 5 most sustainable cities in the US according to the 2022 Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index (Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington DC), and then researched each cities’ history of and current status of mixed-use developments.