Water Street Tampa at Canadian Centre for Architecture

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Hsia

Reed Hilderbrand is excited to participate in the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s exhibition “Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism.” The show, which considers how we measure the quality of our lives and the data behind happiness, features Reed Hilderbrand’s work on Water Street Tampa.

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Hsia

“[Our Happy Life] is a fascinating research project on engaging design through a particular lens––that of the idea of happiness, measured through metrics, as a competitive industry and as a new layer influencing our physical spaces from the home to the design of cities,” says Associate Stephanie Hsia.

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Hsia

Associate Principal Elizabeth Randall, who leads the Water Street Tampa project, explains, “Designing for health (of people, of environments) and happiness actually requires collaborative thinking and engineering, much of which is hidden from plain sight in the final product. The design for the spatial layout of the new sidewalks and streets of the Water Street Tampa district was predicated on the accommodation of below-grade infrastructure to support a mature, robust tree canopy and vast groundplane vegetation. The result is a vibrant, alive, shady, absorptive urban environment.”