56th Street and Keystone Avenue

56th Street and Keystone Avenue

Balancing new development and existing neighborhoods

This 1-square-mile stop along the Nickel Plate would revitalize a “vast sea of asphalt littered with warehouse buildings, factories, box stores and storage unit buildings.”

Yet this new community proposed by Matt VanSoest seeks to live in harmony with existing residential neighborhoods, including cottages along Maxinhall Lake, just to the east.

A half-circle of high-rise buildings with rooftop gardens, photovoltaic panels and
wind turbines would be built northwest of the lake. This community of 10,000 people also would sport single-family houses.

Existing one-story commercial buildings to the west would be replaced by three- to fourstory mixed-use buildings. Shops, boutiques, restaurants and recreational facilities would serve new residents and existing neighbors. A canal extended from the lake would allow small boats to move back and forth to the new site. A charter school would focus on water ecology.