Project DTO 2.0: Downtown Orlando Action Plan

The plan is focused on driving actionable changes to the streets, civic spaces, mobility options, and neighborhoods to promote a thriving downtown.

In 2014-2015, the City of Orlando undertook a broad visioning process for Downtown Orlando. Connecting with over 6,600 Orlandoans in different ways, a vision was established to strengthen downtown Orlando’s economic competitiveness in the international and national marketplace, enhance its livability as a safe and welcoming urban city center, intuitively integrate health and wellness into our daily life, and ensure sustainability of downtown’s assets for generations to come. With many wins between 2015-2020, the City decided to undertake a second planning effort to further the ideas of the first and develop a clear physical framework and set of technical recommendations—giving the City a new to-do list for downtown’s transformation. With this, DTO 2.0: Downtown Orlando’s Action Plan was born. The plan is focused on driving actionable changes to the streets, civic spaces, mobility options, and neighborhoods to promote a thriving downtown.

With a strong focus on implementation of physical projects, the Perkins&Will/Nelson\Nygaard team was tasked with developing a data driven plan and giving the city the tools to continue on a data informed decision making process in the future. To begin, our team collected over 25,000 data points in the 509-acres/0.8-square mile study area—creating a comprehensive repository of downtown’s existing conditions and a rich audit of the state of downtown. From this point, we’ve developed a series of strategies and are currently working through a series of detailed concepts for implementation. The planning effort culminated in winter 2023 with the city preparing for plan implementation.