Value in vacancy
Despite the efforts to beautify Mazatlán’s downtown, the city continues to face significant challenges of urban sprawl and a depopulating central district. With 208 hectares of unoccupied buildings and 1,878 hectares of empty plots, the rising costs of public services and infrastructure needed to accommodate the sprawl, had become a major concern for the city. To address this, Gehl’s vision for Mazatlán aimed to breathe life into the inactive downtown and transform a quarter of its vacant areas into vibrant, functional spaces.
Through a district wide strategic framework, the first phases of implementation reimagined underutilized spaces, from parking lots to abandoned plots overrun by vegetation, as pedestrian streets and pilot sites that set a precedent for new developments. The catalogue of pilots feature outdoor cinemas, food markets, community kitchens, light installations, educational workshops, sports activities, playgrounds, and cultural programming, with the aim to add value to the vacant areas and attract future investors.
Beyond this, Gehl developed a comprehensive toolkit to provide the city with practical solutions and resources for long-term success. This included a catalogue of furniture — small, medium, and large — opening up possibilities for more seating, resting, eating, exercising, and play. The strategic framework’s three development phases aim to ensure a steady and gradual activation of the urban voids, turning them into shared streets and pockets of urban vitality.
