While other architecture students and volunteer professionals toiled over tables covered in cardboard, graphing paper, utility knives, hot glue guns and rulers, graduate architecture student Dan Safarik was carefully building a 3-D model of Springfield’s downtown area.
The only plans Safarik had for the model, which replicated four blocks from Fifth Street to Island Park along the Willamette River, were being simultaneously designed on adjacent tables by his group members.
After nearly six hours of intensive planning and work, and with only two hours left until deadline, Safarik said the intensity of the situation would only grow as his group sprinted toward presenting designs to the city administrators and policy makers who may adopt them in future development.
Safarik was one of 17 students from Architecture professor Mark Gillem’s urban design studio who participated in an intensive planning and design session, known as a design charrette, and worked with locally-based architecture and design professionals to generate a future vision for the renewal of Springfield’s downtown.
The event, held on Friday and Saturday, was sponsored by the Southwest Oregon chapter of the American Institute of Architects and hosted by the city of Springfield.
The charrette was intended to develop recommendations for the future development and revitalization of downtown Springfield in three areas targeted by the city: the Booth-Kelly Mill and Millrace District, Main Street and the Washburne District, and the Riverfront and Justice Courts area.
Art Paz, the president of AIA’s Southwestern Oregon chapter and an architect in the community, said his office had been asked to develop plans to rejuvenate downtown areas and contacted Gillem after hearing about the urban planning studio’s community work on such issues as the Whole Foods Market and on the Walnut Station Mixed Use Plan.
“The city is always looking for renewed ideas on the core area and on any part of their jurisdiction,” Paz said. “This charrette may establish policies or guidelines for future development.”
Gillem said many of the new students in his studio had heard about his studio’s previous work and were excited at the idea of being able to participate in another local issue by designing and presenting architectural concepts in a rare charrette format.
“This was a great chance for the students to work for an eight-hour stretch with local professionals, to learn from them, and to participate in the discussions,” Gillem said. “Who wouldn’t be excited about working on a real world project with real world issues?”
A total of 56 participants divided into three groups Friday and toured the respective areas of the city they had been assigned to cover.
Graduate architecture student Dion Serra, whose group was assigned the Booth-Kelly Mill and Millrace District, said the area includes a challenging sudden transition from commercial areas to industrial and residential development. He said that there was also a large amount of space within the Booth-Kelly Mill that could be converted for many uses.
“We only have one day to look at this, so the city can take everything we produce and they can generate more ideas into what they can do,” Serra said. “Springfield is a different community, so what works for Eugene doesn’t necessarily work for Springfield.” Safarik, whose group had been assigned to cover the Riverfront and Justice Courts, said part of the problem with the area was the livability.
“It’s just not a place you want to hang out in,” Safarik said. “It’s the kind of place where you just want to get business done and leave.”
On the tour, city officials explained that the current Springfield police and criminal courts building, which currently covers part of the block on Pioneer Parkway East and A Street, would be demolished in favor of constructing new buildings for the agencies, a jail and more secure parking on the block.
Meeting on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. in a library meeting room at Springfield’s City Hall, Safarik and his group spent the first few hours noting the area’s assets and liabilities.
The group disliked the city’s plans for a new jail along A Street, which they wanted to promote as a civic street, and the possible closing of B Street as a main road. Instead, they promoted a redesign of the future jail and police courts building, turning A Street and the surrounding neighborhoods into mixed-use commercial areas with larger building space and height, and improving accessibility to Island Park.
Senior planner Mark Metzger said there was a possibility that ideas and designs the students and professionals came up with that day might influence and be used by the city.
“Like with all planning conferences, I think the city planners will look at some ideas and say, ‘We’re not ready for this,’ and on other things they’ll say, ‘This is something we can do,’” Metzger said.
Safarik said he thought the presentation and charrette was successful.
“I’m always impressed by how much people can turn out in a short amount of time,” Safarik said. “It was a very good experience.”
Each group’s designs and models were collected to be displayed in City Hall and put in a report that will be available on the city’s Web site.
Contact the city, state politics reporter at [email protected]
