Belonging: Bend Central District Initiative

The Bend Central District Initiative (BCDI), a project of Central Oregon LandWatch (COLW), worked to build broad, effective support for policies that advanced an inclusive, dense, and mixed-use neighborhood in the Bend Central District—one connected by safe, sustainable mobility options. With a focus on residents of the BCD and its adjacent Orchard and Larkspur neighborhoods, as well as local business owners and employees, particularly within the Latinx community, the Initiative grounded its planning in the lived experiences and aspirations of those who call the district home.

Pueblo Studio collaborated with COLW and BCDI visionary board members to design a community engagement plan that centered storytelling, participatory design, and community visioning. Pop-up engagement activities across the district invited residents to articulate their priorities, imagine the district’s future, and co-develop the neighborhood’s emerging identity. Pueblo Studio also facilitated storytelling sessions, elevating personal narratives that illuminated community needs, guided planning decisions, and informed policy shifts.

To honor and showcase the vision the community co-created, Pueblo Studio applied narrative curation by transforming a vacant mall into a celebratory exhibition space. Portraits of participants, photographs of the district, and a collaboratively crafted community poem were displayed alongside an interactive LEGO activity that encouraged visitors to continue shaping and affirming the district’s future. One vacant storefront was even transformed into a pop-up movie theater, where residents watched a video produced by Pueblo Studio that uplifted the stories gathered throughout the process.

These stories, brought to life through art, visioning, and shared reflection, combined with broad public participation to shape the community guidelines ultimately made available to the City and future developers. The result was a people-centered foundation for the Bend Central District’s growth: one where community agency guided development, and where storytelling and visioning served as catalysts for more equitable, responsive, and enduring design.