Vision
Woodlawn has an appetite for a place that is full of life - one that celebrates cultural heritage and showcases its dynamism and vitality. Catalyzed by recent neighborhood reinvestment, Woodlawn is poised to become a center of commerce, development, equity, and national importance.
Woodlawn Central is the first phase of the 2060 neighborhood plan developed by The Network of Woodlawn. Designed by and for the Black community through self-determination. It will be a new model for urban regeneration that prioritizes development without displacement.
Woodlawn’s layers of culture reflect the neighborhood’s aspirations for the use of technology, agriculture, visual arts, community-based retail, and performing arts. Woodlawn Central introduces a national model for successful development of the Black community from the inside out and challenges the notion that gentrification is inevitable as urban places regenerate.
An Innovative Approach to Urban Regeneration
Lead from the ground up and serve as a national model for development without displacement.
Thoughtful Design & Intentional Place-Keeping
Provide a mix of uses and building types that provide opportunities for living, working, playing, and recreating within a multicultural and multigenerational urban environment.
A Welcoming and Connected Public Realm
Create a walkable and hyperconnected urban development, while promoting existing neighborhood assets and opportunities for active mobility.
A Transit-Connected Community
Build a ”5-minute district”: a complete community supported by transit where one can access a variety of services and goods without needing to drive.
Authentic
Reflect the community’s long-standing cultural relevance, community stewardship, storied history, and ties to the Woodlawn community
Interactive and Engaging
Leverage digital technology and art to communicate ambition, relevance, and mission.
Sustainable and Resilient
Infuse sustainability and social, economic, and climate-resiliency.
Guiding Principles
This development is supported and sponsored by Dr. Byron T. Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God, as well as its official board, and community members. The church and its leaders feel that there is no greater time than the present to use its influence and resources to support a wide range of emerging leaders engaging within the Black diaspora. There is a clear understanding that in these modern times, Black Americans are in great need of safe spaces to live, work, create, celebrate, and grow. Woodlawn Central provides a-once-in-a-generation opportunity to address this pressing societal need.
Woodlawn Central is designed to support a diverse range of Black American businesses, creators, innovators, and residents, providing opportunities to share their unique experiences and perspectives through craftsmanship, service, entertainment, and hospitality that you won’t find anywhere else. Woodlawn Central will express the community’s energy through urban innovation, design, art, culture, and the public realm, creating an acute legacy of reflection and expression that provides an urban experience of something larger than life. This energy spirals and spills into the alleys, plazas, streets, multigenerational housing, and improved transit connections, providing artistically curated experiences, new festival streets, iconic performance venues, workforce housing, luxury experience offerings, and a stage for entrepreneurial spirit.
