The Milk District Design Charrette

At the intersection of Bumby Avenue and Robinson Street in Orlando, Florida, a 1950s auto repair shop sits vacant, as it has for over 30 years. Diagonally across the street is an empty grass lot. Passing through, it’s not evident that you are at the heart of the Milk District, one of Orlando’s twelve Main Street Districts. It’s not the entry point one would expect such a vibrant and creative business community to have. For a weekend in August, a group of students and young professionals met to envision ways to change that.

It was the second annual Milk District Design Charrette hosted by the AIA Orlando Young Architects Forum in collaboration with the Milk District Design Committee.

The Milk District is a commercial district about a mile and a half east of downtown Orlando. It was named for T.G. Lee Dairy, which started as a dairy farm in 1925 and is still in operation today. Established in 2016, the Milk District was the tenth district to join the Orlando Main Streets program. It has become a cultural hub, home to a variety of unique small businesses and a popular destination for food, entertainment, fashion, arts and events.

The idea for the first charrette came about in early 2022, when members of the AIA Orlando Young Architects Forum were seeking a way to flex their design muscles. Committee member Carrie Manes also co-chairs the Milk District Design Committee, and proposed that the design focus on that neighborhood. The charrette was a way to quickly focus design ideas and offer them up to the community. With direct access to the Design Committee, we knew these proposals could influence the future of our city.

The charrette took place over the course of five days in August. The kickoff meeting on Thursday evening introduced the design prompts and organized the teams. Using information from the signup forms, participants were grouped so that teams had a variety of backgrounds and experience levels. In addition to young architects, students from Valencia College, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Florida Graduate School of Architecture - CityLab Orlando were invited to attend. There were also team members representing civil engineers, city planners, Orlando Urban Sketchers, artists, and community residents. The blend of experiences allowed students to look at real world scenarios, while working professionals had some freedom to propose ideas beyond the limits of their day-to-day practice.

From Friday to Monday, teams worked on a flexible schedule to address the design prompt. Some participants chose to take a day or two off of work to focus on the charrette, but the majority put in time either after hours or on the weekend. The charrette was also set up to meet the requirements of a design competition for participants working on AXP to receive credit. It culminated with a presentation the following Tuesday evening to the entire Milk District Design Committee and representatives from various community organizations. The teams shared their ideas and received feedback from the stakeholders present. The event was a conversation about what is possible both in terms of how much can be produced in a weekend, but also the future of the Milk District itself.

It was so successful, the planning team from YAF and the Milk District Design Committee decided to bring it back for a second year.

The general structure of the charrette for 2022 and 2023 was the same. The timing to align with the very beginning of the academic year, before students were too bogged down by studio, was also the same. However, the first year, multiple design prompts of varying scales were prepared and teams were allowed to pick the one that most aligned with their skill set. After the first year, one of those design prompts, the auto repair shop (called Hoods Up) property seemed to generate the most discussion of possibilities for the community. The timing of creation of the design prompt for the second year also coincided with the release of the Florida Department of Transportation complete streets plan for Robinson Street, which the Hoods Up property faces. The second year’s design prompt was created to focus on what can be done with a property that is not ideally sited, but serves as a landmark to the community. How can the complete streets strategy be used to make that location a true arrival point to the Milk District? What street treatments can connect that site to the rest of the district? How can art be used to make those connections?

Participants didn’t hold back and both years created an astonishing amount of work in such a short time span. They pushed boundaries and presented innovative work. They seemed surprised to receive feedback that their ideas weren’t too far out of the realm of possibility. Hopefully, they will take that lesson that they don’t need to self-censor their creativity back to their practice. By working with community members and nonarchitects, they also learned the value of having stakeholders involved in the process. The collaborations led to some concepts that would not have been thought of by siloing disciplines into separate teams.

Team members expressed that the charrette helped them to broaden their experiences in the architecture and planning fields while doing something fun that also gives back to the community. Several have expressed interest in participating again in the future and inviting friends and classmates to join. For the Milk District, ways that the ideas generated in the design charrettes can be brought to life are already being seen. The Hoods Up property was recently listed for sale. The listing agent served as a judge at the 2023 charrette presentation, and prospective buyers have asked to see the proposals for inspiration. In the meantime, the lot is being used for weekly food truck events to activate that corner. The district is looking at ways to utilize nearby parking lots during off-hours to help businesses where parking is limited, and create safe, walkable connections between those parking lots and businesses. The goal is that people don’t just visit one business and go home, but they visit the Milk District as a destination.

There are plans to expand the idea of the design charrette beyond the Milk District, including the possibility of working with other Main Street programs on their own charrettes or hosting a creative competition between districts.

Great discussion has come from both years’ charrettes, and we’re looking forward to continuing the conversation and finding ways to make some of the proposed ideas a reality.

Before joining NCARB as the Outreach Manager for Experience + Education, Emily worked in the architecture and engineering industry for 17 years at various firms in Florida.

Carrie is a Project Architect at DLR Group in Orlando, Florida, specializing in Justice+Civic projects. She is a current board member and Design Committee co-chair for The Milk District Main Street program, and a past board member and Women in Architecture committee chair in AIA Orlando.