DSA Brings Home Award and Best Practices from International Downtown Association Conference

How do you paint a future picture of a city after a period of record construction? How do you help people see beyond the cranes and torn up streets? You make a forward-looking video. At least that’s what DSA’s Communications & Marketing team did.

“Construction is all around us,” said Jon Scholes, DSA President & CEO. “With dozens of cranes at work here, people often ask: ‘What will the city will look like when it’s all done?’ Our video — A look ahead in downtown Seattle – provides a tangible vision.”

A look ahead brings Seattle’s skyline to life, using motion graphics to overlay future projects on our current city. Utilizing renderings secured from local architectural firms, government agencies and nonprofit organizations, we built digital models of our urban core and animated in a post-construction downtown.

The video was produced for DSA’s 2018 State of Downtown event and quickly took off on social media. In October, it won an Award of Excellence from the International Downtown Association (IDA) at the its annual IDA conference in San Antonio.

DSA travels to IDA’s conference each year. We connect with other downtown associations, trade strategies on building great center cities and discover how downtowns around the country are tackling issues they face at home.

This year, in addition to accepting the Award of Excellence, DSA team members learned about efforts to address homelessness in Texas, met with industry experts, joined a Tech Trek of emerging companies in San Antonio and even climbed aboard barge tours to learn more about the city’s public realm.

“Business improvement districts do critical work across North America to make cities vibrant, safe and healthy places,” said Don Blakeney, DSA Vice President of Advocacy & Economic Development. “IDA is one of the rare places you can connect with such a diversity of local leaders, from Peoria to New York, to share notes and learn how to continue delivering better downtowns.”