Overview
The CityBuilding Express (CBX) is taking learning on the road March 21 - 22 with an intensive tour of innovative neighborhoods/developments that highlight CityBuilding best practices and how to implement them— with the assistance from local experts and leading practitioners who will be on the tour with you. After visiting each city, the participants will discuss and identify the lessons to learn from each place as we head to the next city. This is the perfect hands-on learning environment for community leaders wanting to enhance their knowledge of how to improve their city in a compressed amount of time.
Itinerary
The CBX will start in San Antonio and speed its way to CNU 30 in Oklahoma City with stops in San Marcos, Austin, Waco, DFW and many places in between. We will end the trip with a train ride from DFW to OKC.
The itinerary is outlined below and it will continue to be updated as we move closer to the time of the tour.
CBX Topics
Funding Community Improvements; Downtown Revitalization; Street Design; Incremental Development; Food Halls; Affordable Housing; Creative PlaceMaking; Missing Middle Housing; Integration of New Schools into Neighborhoods; Iconic Civic Structures; Sustainable Development; Streetcar Programs; PlaceMaking as an Economic Development Tool; Urban Retail; Parking Design & Management; Roundabouts; Roles and Responsibilities of Different Community Organizations for Implementation; Architectural Branding; Form-Based Codes; Return on Infrastructure Investment Analysis (GeoAccounting); Tactical Urbanism; Development & Design Centers; Light Imprint Infrastructure; Managing Homelessness; and Agricultural Urbanism.
Agenda
There is no formal program for SUNDAY March 20th in San Antonio, but for those who expect to be in San Antonio on Sunday, we have optional activities listed below:
Sunday, March 20th (San Antonio)
12 PM Optional Lunch
Dough Pizzeria Napoletana, 518 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78205
1:30 PM Optional Guided Tour of Hemisfair Park
4 PM Optional Guided Tour of the Alamo
300 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205
5:30 PM Check into Individual Hotels
6:30 PM Optional Guided Tour of Pearl District
303 Pearl Pkwy, San Antonio, TX 78215
7 PM Optional Dinner
Boiler House Texas Grill & Wine Garden, 312 Pearl Pkwy, San Antonio, TX 78215
Monday, March 21st (San Marcos, Austin, Waco, Waxahachie)
8:00 AM Depart San Antonio
115 Losoya Street, San Antonio, TX 78205
The closest hotel will be:
The Hilton Garden Inn San Antonio Downtown Riverwalk - website Here
9:00 San Marcos. While we are in San Marcos we will explore its historic courthouse square, and learn how the community developed its form-based code, implemented tactical urbanism projects, and built complete street projects.
10:30 Austin. While we are in Austin we will explore the downtown, the tiny home community of Village Farm, the homeless housing development Community First! Village, and the large-scale public-private partnership redevelopment of the airport known as Mueller.
4:15 Waco. After a robust discussion of lessons to learn from San Marcos and Austin during our bus ride to Waco, we will visit the Chip & Joanna Gaines Magnolia Market at the Silos.
5:45 Waxahachie. Our final stop for the day will be just south of Dallas in Waxahachie. There will be no formal touring upon our arrival, you will be free to visit the redevelopment projects around the historic courthouse square.
Tuesday, March 22nd (Dallas, Fort Worth)
8:20 Duncanville. Duncanville is on the south side of Dallas known for its innovative incremental development projects that have been spearheaded by Incremental Development Alliance co-founder Monte Anderson.
10:00 Dallas. While we are in Dallas, we will tour the Bishop Arts District is known as the birthplace of the Tactical Urbanism movement's "Build a Better Block" initiative, and we will explore how this helped speed revitalization of this neighborhood. We will also tour the Klyde Warren Park/Freeway Cap which is a five acre park that sits on a cap over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, one of the first of its kind in the U.S. Within a mile of the cap is Uptown Dallas which is one of the most remarkable urban infill redevelopment districts in the U.S.
12:30 Grapevine. Downtown Grapevine is a main street that has creatively leveraged food, wine, new civic buildings, and urbanism to revitalize the area.
2:45 Southlake. We will tour Southlake Town Center to see how the insertion of a city hall and a large civic square turned an otherwise boring lifestyle center into the most beloved area of the city of Southlake.
4:15 Fort Worth. Our final stop will be downtown Fort Worth where there is a wide array of plazas, parks, retrofits, urban retail, infrastructure investments, and much more.
5:15 Amtrak. For those who take the train to Oklahoma City, it is scheduled to depart at 5:25 p.m., and arrive at 9:30 p.m.