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Submitted by chad360 on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 7:40am.
Open design thread to discuss what folks would like to see in our downtown "built environment"- Concrete sidewalks or green paths? Glaring sun or shady trees? Water fountains or a crude pipe? Vacant lots or parking garages with townhouses above? Dark alleys or pedestrian-friendly byways? -as an example, I'm of the mindset that the cost of cutting tree wells into existing concrete sidewalks is offset or recovered by the savings on cooling costs for adjacent buildings (in summer), and also by creating a "positive externality" for our community... ...so these are just my musings, what do you-all think? ...any thoughts of what could work or what does not work downtown? During this whole Triway deal, I realized that the process starts when folks ask for it, and I'm positive that our community has enough "vision" to direct our muni.gov where we need to go- -so let's "be the developer", in consensus as a community & with the mindset that if we design and facilitate this understanding, the result will be Olympia Renewed, not someone's "legacy".
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A sense of place.
Submitted by einmaleins on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 1:43pm.I have lots of detailed ideas, but this is the bigger picture for me (which is also, what I emailed the planning commission).
The highest goal should be to create a sense of place.
The French call it Terroir and is usually used in context with wine-making (which is another huge passion of mine, but belongs into another thread!).
Downtown Olympia and it's surroundings have been chosen by our forefathers as a place for people.
Unlike other great places around the world, i.e. Grand Canyon, Mt. Rainier, where nature should be left alone. Olympia is a place for people.
I know this is debatable, but we can't get the people and their realistic needs out of the equation when we talk about designing a special place in downtown.
So, for me, downtown Olympia needs to be a great place for people: Like all the great cities in the world, as crazy and exhausting as they may seem ( NYC, Berlin, Paris, etc.) they offer people a place to live that is unlike anywhere else, and as pointed out someplace else, actually offer a much more sustainable lifestyle, than suburbia.
So, practically: Mixed housing, great retail and restaurants, "flagship attractions" like museums and parks - all connected by a car-free, pedestrian street with cobble-stone! Street Cafes, Open_air Live Music.
Ahhhh, dreams,....
mathias
einmaleins
if you had to pick...
Submitted by chad360 on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 1:56pm....one thing that you'd want to happen in downtown Olympia, what would you choose?
Another way to think about this is, what first?
For me, the first step would be to set the time(s) that car access would be restricted, and then look at the "where".
...any thoughts?
I think...
Submitted by einmaleins on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 2:42pm.... the car-less street would be a great first step.
Since it immediately would be a great draw for people and marketing tool.
We would loose quite a few parking spots, which is something we would need to consider.
We could solve that by consolidating existing parking lots and make people aware of where they can actually park in downtown. That might take care of the "bad--press" a project would get for the loss of parking.
That would be my first pick for a public project, that would require a huge amount of public development.
Something smaller and more concise could be to create a special draw for downtown:
A flagship store (einmaleins, just 10 x bigger) or a museum ( I would love to figure out if a Modern Art Museum could work in a small city like Olympia) or something. That would draw people into the downtown core as an attraction in itself.
mathias
einmaleins
OK, well...
Submitted by chad360 on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 4:33pm....I was thinking to save costs all the way around that the plan could be to just block cars from the existing scene during certain times and days (as an example, say after 6pm no cars downtown and free-parking outside of the "core").
...and if this does freshen up the downtown zone, maybe extend the times, etc...
My thoughts on "flagship":
Have an "arcade"-like structure that is sorta along the lines of Freighthouse Square in Tacoma (or Pike Place in Seattle) that is anchored by an International Hostel, so the "international" flavor could permeate throughout the zone, and possible attract most of the restaurants into a united well-designed offering (imagine strolling along indoors during Winter & outdoors during Summer with lots of fun during the change of seasons...like beer drinking and street dancing =). This would be the place to have an aquatic center in adjacency, and as you'll note in the link to Freighthouse, near public transit (make the South Sound scene so vibrant that Sound Transit will "demand" a rail connection from downtown to the Amtrack hub in Yelm =) < I wish!
I see a whole global-port city-tourism blend here that just might work-
...thanks for the thoughts & spring-boarding!
Art School...
Submitted by chad360 on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 4:36pm....not museum?
Leave the museum gig and convention center stuff to Seattle-Tacoma (they have a bigger base).
Oly could really use an art school downtown (give TESC a "run-for-the-money"), and I'm thinking that TCTV would be "on-board" as well (get that public access studio in downtown).
whaddya think of those apples? (...I dunno, something my Dad always says =)
Flagship and more...
Submitted by einmaleins on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 7:54pm.First:
Here is my idea for a "flagship" location:
http://www.maerkte-stuttgart.de/Repository/MarkthallenFlyer
It's a PDF, check it out, it's in German, but the pictures should say it all. I can fill you in more another time, if you'd like more details.
Next International Hostel:
It's funny that this is coming up, cause that is the real dream that my wife and I have, which we've been working on for the last few years and scaled back so we could start a small store by ourselves, not have to worry about a huge team of people that could run a place like that.
I've done some massive research in that direction and worked in several of them in Germany and stayed in a few in South Africa.
So, lastly: Artschool vs. Museum
If I say museum I see MOMA, not some weird small-scale heritage museum that every little town has. Not even SAM in Seattle, which (have only been to the old one) was pathetic in displaying art and creating a memorable space for people to visit.
If I hear artschool, I think of my wife, who went to Cornish in Seattle and, also it created a lot of creative space for people to express themselves, it didn't really create any real perspectives for young people other than giving them art history degrees, so they could teach in art schools - a self-destructive weird cycle.
So, a museum to lift the self-image of the city and make it a performance space as well, the give people the chance to experience art. It also would lift the local art scene to a new level!
Well, this is enough now of my crazy ideas, now back to my little store, baking small little breads ( that one of my Dad's phrases).
mathias
einmaleins