The Better Blackstone Design Challenge

A collaborative urban design project

The Better Blackstone Design Challenge (BBDC) is a collaborative urban design project for reimagining Fresno’s Blackstone Avenue corridor in a thoughtful, creative way that benefits our small businesses, disadvantaged communities, and the sustainability of the entire city.

We're rewriting Fresno's narrative

by envisioning a vibrant Blackstone corridor. This is more than a design challenge; it’s a movement to unite and inspire architects, property owners, investors and city leaders to develop a future Blackstone where innovation, connectivity, and inclusivity can thrive along the backbone of our city.

Join us in redefining Fresno's urban identity, one visionary design at a time.

500+ Opportunity Parcels

6 Talented Designers

1 United Blackstone

We've not only come up with a template, we've also demonstrated how architects, landscape architects, urban designers and non profits can all come together to solve a really difficult problem with so many facets, including economic, health, psychological, and traffic components.

What we've captured is a path to a better quality of life for the people of Fresno. We need some forward thinking here so we don't have more urban blight as we grow. These templates can be utilized readily, and can be used anywhere - it's very encouraging and inspiring.

This is an opportunity to look at what we have, and what we could have. We're exploring alternatives and offering a different viewpoint from what we've done in the past. This shows a better way, something more meaningful, and a new direction.

This template is not super radical... it's common sense with how spaces actually work. This is doable, it makes financial sense, and it's for all the right reasons.

This effort is visionary, and all the graphics, studies, and calculations from this project are now accessible for everyone to use and get inspired. We've already seen some mindsets shift that the old way is not the only way. This is a great gift to the City of Fresno.

This has the potential to inspire people to think about our city, how Blackstone can change, and how the rest of our city can change. I hope it inspires some deep thought about how we should develop and how our city should continue to grow.