October 29, 2009 -- Poplar Avenue, the busy thoroughfare that cuts through the Memphis Medical Center like a river dividing territories, is the starting point for a plan to make the district a cohesive area.

The Memphis Medical Center Streetscape Committee has selected three finalists to devise that master plan. After the city engineering firm better defines the scope of work through a request for proposals, the committee could decide on a design firm by year's end, said Beth Flanagan, director of the medical center.

"If you go around the country and look at other medical centers, like Houston and St. Louis, they have a very distinct sense of place," Flanagan said. "You want visitors to feel like it's friendly and make sure it's pedestrian-friendly. All of those are overreaching goals and you have to start someplace."

Red Sea parted
Poplar Avenue makes sense as the starting point because two multimillion-dollar projects are being built across the street from one another, the new Le Bonheur Childrens Medical Center and the Legends Park residential development. Poplar also separates the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital campus from the rest of the medical district.

Currently, workers from Le Bonheur have to dart through traffic as motorists weave around them during shift changes. Out-of-town visitors who may not be as adroit at dodging traffic will also be crossing Poplar when the FedExFamilyHouse is built to provide lodging for the parents of sick children. It will open late next year to coincide with Le Bonheurs move into its new $340 million hospital.

"It's a very intimidating street for pedestrians," Flanagan said. "How do we begin to address that so that children and families staying at FedExFamilyHouse will be comfortable crossing the street to Le Bonheur? How do we connect that neighborhood on the north side of Poplar in a better way?"

Identity issues
The three finalists for devising a streetscape plan are Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., Tetra Tech and Buchart Horn Inc. All three firms have offices throughout the United States, including Memphis, but none of their corporate headquarters are here. The committee narrowed the finalists down from eight different teams.

Longer term, the streetscape plan does not stop with Poplar Avenue. The city engineering department is devising two requests for proposals, one that focuses on the busy thoroughfare and one with a broader scope for the larger district.

"If you go around the country and look at other medical centers ... they have a very distinct sense of place."
Beth Flanagan
Director, Memphis Medical Center
The Memphis Medical Center stretches diagonally with a wide berth from St. Jude at the northwest edge of Downtown to the intersection of Lamar and South Cleveland avenues at the southwest corner of Midtown.

It encompasses four hospitals, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, at least three other medical teaching institutions, biotechnology firms, numerous medical offices and several residential areas.

New projects totaling $1.6 billion have been completed, are under construction or are in the planning phase for the Memphis Medical Center.

How far the study goes and how much work is done to make the district a more connected place depends largely on funding. The Tennessee Department of Transportation holds about $4 million in federal funds for the project. That may not be enough to go beyond some improvements along Poplar Avenue at this point.

"To spend our few million, in the scope of things, it's not a huge amount of money in regard to what all the other stakeholders have put in the ground," Flanagan said.

The study will touch on streetscape enhancements, open space provisions and marketing efforts such as branding. The overall scope and cost to devise and implement a streetscape plan for the Memphis Medical District is yet to be determined.

Ultimately, the district needs to find a way to connect its different stakeholders while allowing them to do their own branding.

Every institution will always have its own identity, Flanagan said.