by Chelsea Blahut

Shore to Core is the new competition in the architecture and urban planning realm that combines both design and research to improve a community. Collaboratively launched by New York nonprofit organization the Van Alen Institute and West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, based out of West Palm Beach, Fla., it aims to understand how West Palm Beach residents better respond to their built environment when an urban core and waterfront area are linked to create a more cohesive city. The approach by the organizations is to select three teams, two of which would specialize in design and the third in research, to eventually link the two active, yet separated, areas with the tools they come up with in this multidisciplinary project. From there, they hope to integrate appropriate aspects into other cities.