I attended the evening meeting, which ran from 6pm-9pm. We looked at a number of examples of small parks & plazas to get ideas. What they are doing to the intersection is not putting in a circle (that idea was deemed too expensive), but rather joining existing small islands together to create a single space. The meeting broke into 5 groups & headed outside to take a closer look at the spaces. Representatives from the groups stood up and summarized the ideas & observations of their groups. Ideas included (but were not limited to):
-changing the elevation of the plaza
-putting in a fountain
-putting in a stage / small ampitheater
-adding benches
-having some green spaces.
-adding nice, welcoming lighting
The major factors to consider during design are:
-crime: it is important to have a well lit space where visibility from the street is good enough to discourage drug activity.
-noise: elevation and a fountain could help reduce traffic noise.
-overall appeal / perceptions of safety: If it doesn't look welcoming & safe people simply won't use it.
essentially, the audience asked for a space (and public art) that would really reflect the neighborhood.
7 comments:
I love these meetings where are we asked are asked for input on what we want, then we are told "it's too expensive".
On the H street transportation plan, we were told when we said that we wanted brick sidewalks that it was too expensive. Of course it was the the very expensive Michael Baker consultants telling us this. It seems that we always have to "make do" in this part of town.
The estimate for adding a circle was $30 million. I don't know the cost for this plan, but it won't be cheap.
I went to the day meeting and it was a disaster--extremely car-centric and "backwards thinking" by more traditionally-minded members of the community. But it didn't involve going out to the site. I think site visits are important to get people out of traditional ways of thinking. After the meeting I went and shot a bunch of photos but I haven't uploaded them yet. Do you think the site visits helped?
I agree about the bricks and the circle. I advocated for such during the previous study. I thought the circle $ number was about $50 million though... and the cost for brick sidewalks is extremely high per mile unfortunately. The Barracks Row project had the advantage of using money that the U.S. DOT had already been provided to the city for another, later cancelled project, and the city had to spend the money or return it to the Federal Govt.
Richard,
Wow, that was not at all like my experience. If anything, I would say it was the opposite. Maybe it was because we had so many senior residents of Delta Towers present. These residents live right next to the intersection and know that it is virtually impossible for some of them to safely cross the street to Hechinger Mall. To respond to your question, I think that walking to the site was tremendously important. It really brough the safety issue for the seniors home. In addition, you can get a better feel for the space when you are actually right there. We talked about the slope of the ground, looked at the existing bus stop, where the trash was being tossed, ect. Plus, we could hear the roar of the traffic going by. I'm pretty familiar with this intersection from a pedestrian's standpoint because I always pass through it when I cart my groceries home from Safeway. But I very glad to have the opportunity to actually walk around the site with others while discussing the plans. I'm really surprised that your section didn't go outside. It is, after all, a very different thing to walk across an intersection, than to drive across it. I wish we could do something to reduce the traffic flow right there. One guy from my group kept pointing out that the future plaza space is very disconnected from H Street, and I'm afraid he's right. We need to really concentrate on the other stuff nearby so the space won't be such a dead zone. Clearly PPS & DDOT are thinking about this (they mentioned talking to HSMS about engaging with nearby businesses), but I suspect it will be a bit of a challenge. Also, I wonder what effect the singles ban will have on all of this. The ban will apply only to H Street & there are at least two liquor stores vary close to the plaza area that (I assume they both currently sell singles, but this might not be the case) will not fall under the ban. One of these places (Rose's Liquor on Bladensburg) was recently cited for selling to a minor.
I think I heard $30 million tossed out at the meeting (as an estimate to build a circle), but I could be wrong.
Also, take a look at this post on the daytime meeting from the Blog Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space.
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