Context Sensitive Solutions in Large Central Cities

This report is a summary of the proceedings and findings from a one-and-a-half day peer-to-peer workshop on context sensitive design/solutions (CSD/S) held in New York City in June 2003. The goal of the session was to lay a foundation for dealing with the state of the practice and processes related to context sensitive solutions, and to identify specific urban examples that could be used as benchmarks for lessons learned and best practices. The report presents hard -to-find examples of CSD/S in large central cities, specifically from Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, and Philadelphia. Each example illustrates some elements of CSD.S more than others, but together they provide a baseline for understanding how large cities are coping with the myriad issues related to CSD/S and why a more concerted effort is needed in understanding and implementing CSD/S.