By Todd Jackson and Matt Chittum
The Roanoke Times
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The usually vacant, aged top floor of Roanoke's iconic City Market Building was transformed this week into a laboratory for a radical makeover of downtown.
Almost before the public's eyes, a team of consultants working in a makeshift office of folding chairs and tables scratched out plans for: See the renderings
-- Putting outside balconies on buildings, to create a New Orleans feel.
-- Moving the farmers market stalls to a structure that would run down the center of Market Street like a spine.
-- Building a food distribution and staging area on the Church Avenue side of the market area where local cooks could show off their favorite recipes using locally grown produce.
-- Turning the market building inside out, so the existing enclosed food court restaurants would face the outside, complete with new glass doors so dining activity could be seen from the street.
-- Constructing a huge Spanish staircase adjoining the downtown end of the existing pedestrian bridge that leads from the Hotel Roanoke to create a European style entrance into Roanoke's heart.
-- Adding a movie theater and residential development on downtown's Williamson Road edge.
The firm, recognized for its pursuit of reawakening American urban centers, dispatched a team of experts to Roanoke, including designers who produced art-show quality, watercolor renderings of new downtown scenes.
Leading the firm's initiative is Tom Lowe, its Charlotte, N.C.-based director of town planning, who's a Roanoke native and a graduate of Patrick Henry High School. Lowe said his firm will prepare a master plan, hold another public meeting in the next few weeks, and then present a draft report to Roanoke City Council in December.
The renderings and initial ideas for a spruced-up downtown were drawing rave reviews late in the week.
"It's stunningly cool," said Ford Kemper, a lawyer and board member of Downtown Roanoke Inc., a tax-supported entity that oversees the city's historic center.
Others had similar initial reviews of the proposals.
"They're right on," said Downtown Roanoke Inc. Market Manager Hope Hollingsworth. "They're revolutionary, they're bright, they're fresh ... They could completely change the face of our downtown."
But some offered up a reality check.
Carolyn Largen of Mount Airy, N.C., said she was in downtown this week to eat lunch with her daughter. Largen said they had a difficult time finding a parking place on the street or in a garage. She said their vehicle was later ticketed in a metered space.
"It was a real hassle," she said. "That place is not tourist-friendly at all."
Parking is an issue that was mentioned frequently in the meetings this week, Lowe said. If improvements are made to the downtown to increase its drawing power, Lowe said he believes people will be willing to park in garages and on the fringes of downtown.
Another concern is whether Roanoke can actually implement the high-quality ideas that Duany Plater-Zyberk will recommend.
Lowe said there must be a buy-in from the private sector for some of the major ideas to have a chance.
Hollingsworth said there wasn't as much input this week from the public as she'd hoped, but the process was mind-blowing to watch.
Hollingsworth suggested a kitchen where market vendors could prepare pies, preserves and the like, and within minutes it was incorporated into the plans.
"It's really remarkable the kind of blitz they do turning people's ideas into images," said Roanoke Senior Planner Chris Chittum.
By Friday afternoon, artists had drawn and painted a half-dozen elaborate renderings.
The city hopes to move with the same urgency, according to Chittum. One reason for requiring a draft report in December is to allow the city to begin setting aside money in the next budget to begin work.
Hollingsworth believes if the proposals are brought to fruition, it could change not only outsiders' perceptions of Roanoke, but residents' views of the city as well.
"Roanokers have lost some faith in the study process," she said. "Hopefully, this will be an opportunity to redeem that faith."
What's downtown Roanoke like now?
ReplyDeleteActually, kind of nice, just not as fancy as what they're proposing now. There's a farmer's market and an arts and entertainement district with plenty of people and businesses.
ReplyDeleteI find it a bit touristy and provincial in spots, but it's easily the biggest and most vigorous downtown in Virginia west of Richmond. Roanoke has a lot going for it.
I am glad the urban planners are focusing their energy on revitalizing downtowns and other inner-city areas in cities from coast to coast. The profession was focused on suburban development for far too long.
ReplyDeleteWhile Duany Plater-Zyberk is a "trendy" firm, many of the tenets of the "New Urbanism" they employ have value. The ideas behind "New Urbanism" aren't really all that new...it's more than appropriate that they be used to improve older cities.
Roanoke's downtown is the cutural and commercial center for a large region. The previous improvment initiatives (notably "Design '79") did a lot to enhance the area, but the changes that Duany Plater-Zyberk propose would make the city more far more functional and aesthetically pleasing.
ReplyDeleteI wish the link to the renderings worked so you could see! LOL
I was having a chat with Steven about inexpensive real estate, wherein I claimed 'the desert' -- block-lots already gridded out to ultimately adjoin and interconnect with already existing mega-towns, and 'the rust-belt' -- where the economy is stagnant and prohibitively inflated property taxes pay for useless bureaucrats (the only stable workforce) in the absence of major corporate taxpayers -- to be the most affordable real estate out there.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with this formula? The obvious: There are already cities, there is already architecture (some of it exquisite, finite and historically rare), and there are already urban infrastructures. The machinations of politics, corporations, and unions have made it impossible to 'start over' in towns like Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown. So, like Mitch says, we build out, imposing 'progressive' building formulae upon inexpensive, vacant land and let the oil companies support our habits.
I understand that suburban expansion is all over the map politically, often enabling the otherwise-disenfranchised to set down roots, but when I look at American demographic migrations, I can't blind myself to the waste.
Oh, crap. What were we talking about? Oh, yeah: Mitch's comment about urban planners revitalizing downtown centers. Unfortunately, this usually doesn't happen unless a critical mass of suburban expansion to a city has been reached, at which point money finds its way back into town and, with it, the 'urban demographic' that fosters the 'arts' crowd....
carry on...........
Wow, you covered the just about all the major city development issues in one fell swoop. Impressive.
ReplyDeleteIn essence, suburbia exists because it has to. It's fed by urban landowners that overvalue their property to the point of unaffordability or let it decay to the point of unlivability, leading us all to tear up pastures and fields, where the cycle begins again, creating the donut, filled in by the arts community, the poor and urbanites.