Projects

  • David, Republic of Panama: La Fontana Town Center is a 100-acre district organized around four programmatic elements: a main street, a medical quarter, an educational quarter and a residential quarter.

  • Montclair, California: Montclair Mall into a Town Center is a specific plan that provides the framework for transforming the existing Montclair Place Mall, a 1.8-million-square-foot shopping mall surrounded by surface parking lot, into a pedestrian-oriented, multi-modal, mixed-use downtown district within walking and biking distance of the extension of Metro’s Foothill Gold Line station,

  • El Paso, Texas: The Northgate Mall Redevelopment is a complex mix of 300,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, entertainment, office space and 450 units of housing, located on the 31-acre site of a failed mall located in the suburbs of El Paso

  • Panama City, Republic of Panama: Located in a private neighborhood in Panama City, Santa Maria Town Center is a 400,000 sf mixed-use development with 100,000 sf of retail and 70 residential units in the form of townhomes and stacked flats.

  • Sarasota, Florida: The University Town Center is a vibrant satellite center for Sarasota that transformed a partially completed conventional suburban development into a permanent mixed-use town center.

  • South Pasadena, California: This plan creates a long-term vision for the historic downtown area of South Pasadena, focusing on two streets, Mission Street and Fair Oaks Avenue, and the existing Gold Line light rail station.

  • Redlands, California: The University Village at the University of Redlands is a town-gown project centered on the terminus station of the soon-to-be-built Redlands Passenger Rail Project.

  • Rohnert Park, California: This 100,000-square-foot retail and 600-unit transit village is designed around a network of pedestrian-scaled blocks and streets centered on a central park that is visually connected to a new light rail station and to the suburban commercial developments of the surrounding blocks.

  • La Chorrera, Republic of Panama: Market Plaza features 600 dwelling units and 27,500 square meters of retail and office space in the suburbs of Panama City.

  • Las Tablas, Republic of Panama: This 26,000 sqm town center located at the eastern edge of the village of La Tablas is Panama's first exurban commercial development based on New Urbanist principles.

  • Santa Clara, Republic of Panama: A new town center located on the Carretera Panamericana in Santa Clara comprising retail stores, restaurants, entertainment venues, office space, a boutique hotel and 50 units of housing.

  • Panama City, Republic of Panama: A 600-unit New Urbanists neighborhood comprising a variety of building and unit types, all surrounded by a rich public realm of open space.

  • El Paso, Texas: This 200-acre master plan, located on a heavily sloping site in the center of El Paso, is the second development to emerge from the City of El Paso’s recently adopted Smart Code.

  • Beverly Hills, California: A new urban park, a 220-bed luxury hotel, a mixed-use office and retail building and 1,000 subterranean parking stalls reinvigorate the core of Beverly Hills, linking the walking streets of Cañon and Beverly Drives.

  • Fruitville, Florida: A coordinated strategy for ecologically responsible development of 346 acres in Sarasota County, the Fruitville Plan lays the armature for the creation of walkable neighborhoods and districts while preserving existing wetlands.

  • San Antonio, Texas: This vision plan for the adaptive reuse of the historic Pearl Brewery addresses new and renewed buildings, providing space for restaurants, residences, studios, shops, educational facilities, offices and public spaces.

  • Downey, California: The redevelopment of Downey Studios creates a true town center on an historic 80-acre property in one of Southern California's Gateway Cities, the birthplace of the Apollo space program.

  • Lancaster, California: The redesign of Lancaster Boulevard establishes a lively public realm with reconfigured streets, plazas, paseos and other public spaces, remedying the loss of the City’s traditional downtown character.

  • Hercules, California: Hercules Town Center, a mixed-use transit-oriented development just north of San Francisco, integrates a proposed train and ferry terminal into the City’s fabric and defines a mixed-intensity residential quarter that cascades to San Pablo Bay.

  • Whittier, California: The Uptown Whittier Specific Plan updates the City’s 220-acre, 33-block historic retail core, preserving and drawing inspiration from the unique character and architectural styles of the area’s many historic buildings.

  • Santa Paula, California: The 500-acre East Area One Plan is organized as three walkable neighborhoods and a civic facilities district, preserving agricultural land in the hills.

  • King City, California: Immediately east of King City’s historic downtown lie 500 acres owned by Smith Monterey, a farming company that has owned the land since the early 1960s.

  • Ventura, California: The Village at Crooked Palm is a master plan for a 136-acre development just north of the City of Ventura. Located along the Ventura River on the site of a decommissioned oil refinery, the site affords beautiful views of adjacent orchards and distant mountains.

  • Ventura, California: The Ventura Downtown Code is one of the first Form-Based Zoning Codes in California—the result of an extensive and detailed analysis of downtown Ventura’s existing streets, blocks, buildings, public open spaces and landscape.

  • Santa Clarita, California: An historic Southern California community located in the 250-square mile Santa Clarita Valley, Newhall has been gradually surrounded by suburban development over the past 50 years.

  • Beverly Hills, California: The character of the Golden Triangle has been strengthened by transforming the area into a park-once district, adding improved landscape and lighting, and adopting a code to guide the design of future buildings.

  • Yorba Linda, California: The Downtown Development Plan will guide the revitalization of Yorba Linda's traditional core with a multi-faceted program that addresses retail, housing and civic issues.

  • Guatemala City, Guatemala: Cayala Town Center is one of six neighborhoods planned for this 1,000-acre city that was master planned in 2003 by Leon Krier and Estudio Urbano.

  • Los Angeles, California: This project addresses an historically important commercial center, the large and underused Sears & Roebuck warehouse and grounds, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood.

  • Culver City, California: Adjacent to the historic Helms Bakery complex in Culver City, Culver Crossings consolidated an amorphous area into a major town center.

  • Long Beach, California: The Long Beach Civic Center / Lincoln Park Renovation resuscitates Long Beach’s civic heart by adding 40,000 square feet of new uses and restoring the pedestrian-friendly block structure of the historic city.

  • Doña Ana, New Mexico: The plan for the reconstruction of Doña Ana's historic plaza offers new hope for the future of this small rural community located on the Camino Real.

  • Santa Fe, New Mexico: Aldea de Santa Fe is a New Urbanist town that features the first public plaza constructed in New Mexico in more than a century.

Thoughts

  • For over twenty years, Moule & Polyzoides has been a unique firm promoting new principles of planning and urban development. We help transform cities into successful, livable places, most often through the design of buildings and the preparation of neighborhood and district master plans, design guidelines, form-based codes and sustainability protocols.

  • Pasadena, California's Bennett Plan is a rare and unique national cultural monument, one of a dozen or so Civic Centers in the United States executed under the principles of Beaux Arts Planning and Design.

  • Presentation to the Planning & Design Commission about the YWCA / Kimpton Hotel in Pasadena's historic civic center.

  • The idea of the plaza in human history is born and developed under a number of different impulses: an expression of the power of the state to define a place for public life, through a singular, monumental architectural enclosure.

Talks

  • A presentation of key principles of town-center and transit-oriented design, followed by a crit on work under way in the core of Yanchep New Town.

  • A series of lectures on the urban and architectural design of town centers during the annual executive course on retail organized by Robert Gibbs at Harvard University.

Press

  • From dilapidated strip to destination—the comeback story of Lancaster, California.

  • CNU's "Public Square" discusses the Lancaster Boulevard Transformation and it's EPA National Award for Smart Growth Achievement.

  • Kaid Benfield reports about the Moule & Polyzoides redesign of Lancaster Boulevard, which has transformed the City's downtown and how it fits with Lancaster's enlightened planning initiatives.

  • Rye Baerg visits Lancaster Boulevard to experience "the amazing transformation" of Lancaster's downtown and describes the street redesign as "a resounding success for businesses and residents."

  • Elizabeth Moule & Stefanos Polyzoides discuss their practice, New Urbanism, their partnership and their life together in Pasadena.

  • Los Angeles Times interview with Stefanos Polyzoides, who reflects on his early years and education, the New Urbanism, pet peeves and current projects—plus living, loving, and working with his partner, Elizabeth Moule.

  • A guide to form-based coding, with a forward by Stefanos Polyzoides.

  • Terrain.org interview with Stefanos Polyzoides that ranges from New Urbanist philosophy to the Community of Civano, Del Mar Station, desert urbanism and the architecture of place.

  • New Urban News article about the revitalization of Downtown Albuquerque, featuring Alvarado Center.

  • Catalog to the 1994 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which included Playa Vista and the Los Angeles Downtown Strategic Plan.

  • A survey of Los Angeles' most provocative buildings and landmarks, with an architectural analysis of the entire period of the city's development. Includes contextual discussion of several Moule & Polyzoides projects: Pomona College Harwood-Lyon Court, Beverly Hills Golden Triangle Enhancement, Los Angeles Downtown Strategic Plan and Playa Vista.

  • A guide to the New Urbanism, with case studies of many pioneering projects, including three by Moule & Polyzoides: Playa Vista, University of Arizona Highland District Master Plan and the Los Angeles Downtown Strategic Plan.

Recognition

News