Friend's email

Your Name

Your Email

Subject

Message 18th & Vine Experience Blueprint IDEO, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri, designed a comprehensive strategy for fostering entrepreneurial opportunities to boost the city’s flagging business economy. At the center of the project was the historic intersection of 18th & Vine, famous for being the birthplace of Kansas City’s rich jazz and baseball heritage. To gain familiarity with the area’s identity and the needs of its residents, the IDEO team spent time with denizens and city officials. By tapping into how locals live and make choices based on the resources available—from their traffic patterns to their Sunday morning excursions—IDEO was able to identify a number of day-to-day needs. Based on these needs, the team outlined growth opportunities that could attract entrepreneurs and developers. Part of the plan was to “densify and diversity” as a means of offering a greater choice of destinations—stores, restaurants, nightclubs, museums, markets, etc.—and alter the in-and-out relationship that many locals have with the area. To convey the area’s commercial potential, the team used manipulated photography to show how vacant lots could be populated with new venues, and how existing buildings could be vastly improved through minor, affordable changes. These “potential states,” along with the blueprint’s other plans, served as communication tools that triggered and supported discussion of revitalization, improved the clients—current process, and forged a path for the area’s brand equity. http://www.ideo.com/work/18th-vine-experience-blueprint