Surprise Arts & Culture Master Plan

Surprise, Arizona

Why

Surprise Arizona is a fast growing city in the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro Region. With 125,000 residents and a projected population of 500,000 by 2050, the city and its leaders are looking to arts and culture to help define the city within the vast and growing metro area. Its not just the population of the city that is projected to grow. Current plans forecast and additional 300 square miles of additional land (on top of the 125 miles of existing incorporated land. This provides an opportunity for the city to be proactive in ensure new development is interspersed with arts and culture that reflect the city and its people.

How

Because of the large scale of the population and land area, the team focused on ensuring that public engagement was accessible and diverse. From Baseball Spring Training to Public Art Bus Tours, the team provided interested engagement opportunities that met the needs of a community whose population includes large numbers of young families and retirees.

Great care and attention was paid to integrating the results of other planning efforts to ensure that this plan can be easily implemented alongside others such as the Park and Recreation master plan as the city grows and develops.

What

The University District Arts and Character Plan yielded targeted recommendations to add public art to the neighborhood as well as bolster existing performing arts and music venues. A ‘Music Trail’ concept modeled on other successful marketing efforts but with an artistic twist will help to drive attendance to existing music venues.

Additional specific recommendations include specific locations and art pieces to be added throughout the neighborhood as well as possible future art trails and instillations.

Client

City of Surprise, Arizona

Team

Designing Local (Lead)

Services

Cultural Planning

Placemaking

Public Engagement

People

Josh Lapp (Lead)

Amanda Golden