TSW Planning, Architecture and Landscape Architecture has been honored for the work the Atlanta-based firm did in partnership with the City of Kingsport, Tenn. to create a new master plan for the city.  The Kingsport Master Plan has won the 2019 Vernon Deines Award for an Outstanding Small Town or Rural Plan, which is given annually by the American Planning Association’s Small Town and Rural Planning Division.  The award recognizes exemplary projects for their contribution to planning excellence in small towns and rural communities.

The Downtown Kingsport Master Plan creates a unified vision to reinforce and magnify downtown Kingsport’s role as the economic and cultural heart of the community.  The plan proposes $74 million in improvements, as well as over 320,000 square feet of new development and nearly 700 new residential units over the next 10 years.  To read the plan, please visit www.downtownkingsportplan.com/documents.

Kingsport, Tenn. was established after the Revolutionary War and envisioned to be a master-planned city by famed landscape architect John Nolen.  Like many American cities, over time, the downtown area became a less appealing place to live, due to loss of housing, greenspaces, services and employment.  Over the past two decades, city leadership has worked to reverse the decline by implementing initiatives to connect the downtown to the rest of the city, beautify the center city and create a live, work, play, dining, shopping and entertainment district.

In 2017, the city hired a team of consultants to create a downtown master plan, consisting of Atlanta-based TSW, who led the planning process and made recommendations relating to land use, design, and the Academic Village; Urban 3 and Friction Shift of Asheville, NC to create a plan for economic development; and the local office of engineering firm Mattern & Craig to make recommendations on downtown Kingsport’s transportation network.  The result of this comprehensive planning effort is a defined list of goals, recommended policies and projects relating to land use, transportation, economic development, arts and culture, and the Academic Village; as well as a framework plan that outlines new development and redevelopment for the city.