The Downtown Davenport Partnership commissioned WXY to develop a strategic master plan for its downtown focusing on placemaking, economic development, strategic growth, and talent attraction. Following a decade of significant growth, coupled with notable setbacks, including historic flooding in 2019 and the COVID-19 crisis, Downtown Davenport sought to develop strategies that would build on the city’s strengths, including a growing residential market, robust small business growth, and a thriving arts and entertainment scene. 

WXY, with its project partners SB Friedman and Sam Schwartz Engineering, developed “Davenport 2030: A Resilient City,” a ten-year vision for the downtown with a focus on creating stronger connections to surrounding communities, developing talent locally, and gaining quick wins through interim improvements and activations.

“Davenport 2030: A Resilient City” is a roadmap for shaping a sustainable, vibrant, and inclusive downtown. It is a strategy for future growth grounded in the activation and enrichment of the public realm. Building on ongoing planning efforts to make Downtown streets safer and its riverfront more resilient, this plan explores how to better connect Downtown to its surrounding neighborhoods and the region as whole. These activations, through arts, culture, entertainment, and economic development, celebrate Davenport’s diversity while promoting a more livable, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all Quad Citizens. 

The master plan draft was presented to the Davenport City Council in October 2020, and finalized in early 2021.