Christina Contreras, principal and founder of Living Ecology Studio in Denver, has been selected as the ULI/Martin Bucksbaum Senior Visiting Fellow. During her one-year fellowship, Contreras will explore how privately owned and managed “third places” can better contribute to individual and community health and well-being, and will develop a “pattern book” for designers and developers to create welcoming and thriving privately owned “third places.”

While commercial real estate investors generally take a positive view on coworking, maintaining a balance of traditional and coworking space in a building is critical when it comes to creating long-term capital value. According to a CBRE survey, investors say that a coworking occupancy of a third of the space or less, with a qualified operator, supports a healthy capital value.

While Pennsylvania’s two largest cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, were being revitalized, the third largest, Allentown, continued to decline—until recently. Today, Allentown is the fastest-growing city in the state, thanks in large part to an innovative state law that created the Neighborhood Improvement Zone.

A decade ago, the 2200 block of Grays Ferry Avenue, the one-third of a triangular intersection girding an inoperative 19th-century fountain, was mostly prized for the handful of parking spaces it offered. Today, the street is closed to vehicular traffic and festooned with planters, painted asphalt, café tables, and a bike-sharing station.