San Diego Architectural Foundation

The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation was named the 2010 winner of the $25,000 Community Vision Award grant Wendesday night, based on the project Village at Market Creek.
  
The other finalists included Mission Hills Town Coucil, based on the project 1MIssion; and Little Italy Association, based on The Q. Clearly the decision was not an easy one, but ultimately the committee was thoroughly moved by the multicultural strength and outstanding collaborative efforts that have proved so effective in the transformation of this prominsing neighborhood.
 
Click 'read more' below for additional photos and the project description, and visit again soon for event photos and more details about the award and event!
 

Transforming approximately 60 blighted acres at the heart of the Diamond Neighborhoods of southeastern San Diego into a thriving commercial and residential district, The Village at Market Creek puts over one square mile of underutilized or abandoned land back into productive use, replaces substandard housing with over 1,000 quality, affordable homes, and is restoring nearly 3,000 linear feet of wetlands.
The full scale of the Village development will emerge over the next 10-15 years, but already, the first completed phases of Village design and construction are producing profound social and economic impacts within this long under-invested community.
   
As a sustainable community, The Village is a dynamic “live-work-play” environment in which culture, commerce, and community are celebrated. The area includes rich community resources that bring people together and build individual capacity through arts, education, youth development, and civic engagement. The Village is connected through its unique architectural character, as well as bike and pedestrian pathways, parks and laygrounds, cultural art, and access to public transit.
  
The Village typifies smart growth by restoring vitality to an older urban neighborhood with an eye toward transit-centered compact design, mixed land uses, environmental sustainability, and shared community benefits and ownership. The Village includes commercial, cultural, and residential projects that are planned, designed, built, managed, serviced, and owned by the community built on the multicultural strength of its residents.