University students from the School of Architecture and Allied Arts are assisting consultants and city officials with a potential transformation of Franklin Boulevard, which could lead to future development of the neighborhood.
There are high hopes that improving the street could eventually transform and redevelop the area through a two-phase “mixed-use” development project. The idea is a convenient combination of residential and commercial structures with public transportation, open space and pedestrian-friendly environments.
A multiway boulevard creates separate lanes for through traffic, two lanes for the Emerald Express, and access lanes and on-street parking on the north and south sides.
The idea for putting in a multiway boulevard on Franklin Boulevard came from the city’s two project consultants, David Evans and Associates, Inc. and Urbsworks, Inc.. However, the consultants and the city have been helped by a University urban design studio.
Mark Gillem, architecture professor and head of the studio, said he started working on the mixed-use project in 2006 with his spring term studio, which focused on the Walnut Station area near the University.
The current studio, composed of 14 students new to the project, is charged with studying the whole Franklin Corridor, stretching from the Ferry Street Bridge and courthouse district in Eugene to the Glenwood area in Springfield.
The students looked at the consultants’ proposals and tried to find the common ground between the short-term and long-term interests of the project’s various stakeholders, such as the business owners, residents, city officials and the University. Gillem said the consultants had not been able to look at the details of applying a multiway boulevard to the unique interests of Eugene.
“My hope is that our research will inform the discussion of how Franklin can develop and to complement the city process,” Gillem said. “All of us have the same goal, and that’s to have Franklin Boulevard be a great street, because right now it’s a liability.”
Senior Planner Allen Lowe, who has been the city’s principal planner for mixed-use development, said Gillem and the students brought incredible research and design skills to the project.
Their work is not in competition with the consultants’; rather, the students are examining their proposals and helping resolve certain issues, Lowe said.
Senior architecture student Tyler Nishitani said the project is different from others in that it involves working on a real project and with real people, even though the designs are still hypothetical.
“The thing that’s great is that we’re students,” Nishitani said. “We can go in and do work that a lot of other parties wouldn’t be able to do in the name of education.”
From the research and planning criteria, Gillem and the students drew four possible designs for a multiway boulevard along Franklin Boulevard. One design, using the 120-foot width of Franklin Boulevard, suggests putting in an access lane on the north side, tree-lined medians and two side-by-side snaking lanes for the Emerald Express.
The other three designs suggest expanding the width of Franklin Boulevard, by 31 feet at most in one design, to allow for a second access lane and street parking on the south side.
By the end of the term, Gillem estimates that students will have spent about 5,000 hours on the project.
Research on the road
As part of their research, the students traveled to Portland, Salem and California on a grant to study successful urban redevelopment projects and multiway boulevards that set a precedent for what could happen in Eugene.
The students found that once new multiway boulevards, such as Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco, Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley and the Esplanade in Chico, Calif. were finished, new development in the neighborhood followed.
Graduate architecture student Eric Knobelspiesse said researching and seeing the streets persuaded him that a multiway boulevard on Franklin would encourage new opportunities.
“We’re biased because we’ve seen it in person,” Knobelspiesse said. “We’ve seen how it works and how well it works, and it’s hard to talk about it to someone who hasn’t.”
Looking for support, input
With so many stakeholders for the project, Lowe said it was necessary to build consensus and certainty with the project.
To generate ideas and support, Gillem and students met with representatives from Lane Transit District, the Eugene Planning Commission and the University to present their designs and to hear suggestions on what each group wanted to see and what they were concerned about.
The students also sought community input by meeting with business owners and residents in the neighborhood. Gillem said many were opposed to the multiway boulevard idea based on the project’s short-term aspects, such as whether they would be forced to give up property for street expansion.
The key to winning people over to the project, Gillem said, was to show them a multiway boulevard’s positive potential and how it could be implemented in phases that would work with their short-term and long-term interests.
Norbert Schoener, co-owner of German Auto Service on Franklin Boulevard, said he is opposed to any widening of Franklin Boulevard because of the potential property loss. He said Gillem and the students’ ideas were satisfactory because they listened to the business owners and they had one design that didn’t expand the boulevard.
The students also engaged residents and city staff by holding a Feb. 2-3 workshop, where participants were asked to create a vision and design ideas for what they would like to see happen with the Franklin Corridor.
“What we’re trying to do is meet with various stakeholders and just educate them on the alternatives we’ve been finding, based on the research that we’ve done on the boulevards and how we’ve tailored that to Eugene,” Gillem said.
Still up to the city
Despite the excitement and interest generated in the community by the students’ proposals, Gillem said the intention is not to actually implement any design, but to offer their findings to city officials and to show how their research can help move the project forward.
That may come on Feb. 12, when the Eugene Planning Commission is scheduled to give direction to planners on what the multiway boulevard should look like. Lowe said it would help planners draw up an operational model of the street.
But the multiway boulevard concept is still far from certain, as the Eugene City Council would have to vote to adopt any plan, Lowe said.
Depending on the level of community support, even public hearings on the project could take several years, he said.
“What’s important is for us to know whether we’re going with a multiway boulevard concept,” Lowe said. “We’re trying to get through these problems now before we get to the public hearings so that we have a lot of support by the time we get there.”
The students will next work on a master plan for the corridor, Gillem said. A future open house and workshop on the Franklin Boulevard project will be held April 13-14 at the Springfield Depot at 101 S. A Street.
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