Cumberland Avenue Streetscape Improvements

The vision was to enhance connections to the University of Tennessee and local employers, and improve the residential and retail character of the district while effectively moving pedestrians, motor vehicles and bicycles. The Cumberland Avenue Corridor Project took a semi-suburban, auto-oriented corridor that was frequently used as a pass-through and made it into an urban, multi-modal corridor providing safe and attractive transportation for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit, and cars, while creating a unique urban district.

The streetscape plan included proposals for a “road diet” from four to three travel lanes, wider sidewalks, street trees and plantings, street furniture, accommodations for transit and transit users, crosswalk design, better signalization, as well as many other factors. Additionally, the City produced a form-based code to create a predictable urban form of development with a lesser emphasis on land use. The form-based code allows the redevelopment of parcels at a much higher density.