So after speaking with Denise this evening, we both agreed that I should outline the discussion I had with Michael Wilkos (recently worked at Capitol South - worked on the master plan from 1992) - who is serving as an advisor for the urban planning portion of the project. The main parts of the discussion will be broken down to bullet points - items that I will be looking at in the coming weeks:
History of Masterplanning in Columbus:
-57 master plans have been done for Columbus
-The first masterplan was done in 1908 - focused on the beautification of Columbus
-Ponte Plans (1970's): done by the French architect/urbn planner - composed of a series of four plans focusing on different aspects of the C-bus
-1987 Strategic Plan
-1992 Comprehensive Plan: serves as the most recent and comprehensive plan city has commissioned.
Transportation:
-Vohn Roll (spelling??): Swiss company interested in transportation - monorail system (i.e. Simpsons episode where Homer is the conductor of the monorail that is above the street)
-Streetcar: streetcar proposal for High St.
-Central transportation terminal - for train, Cota, Greyhound, taxi, etc.
Cultural Center:
-Museum of Art: future expansion or moving, by moving Columbus College of Art and Design could take over the site
-Columbus State: future expansion, dorms (non currently)?, green space can be connected to CCAD
CCAD: expansion connect with Columbus State?,
Franklin and Capital schools: no dorms, where do students eat, sleep, spend money and work?
OSU: students without cars dont have access downtown
Riverfront:
-right now, the Scioto River has no important connection with the city - except for the Santa Maria...
-need to address teh river - San Antonio riverwalk?
Case Study:
-look at Indianapolis - city has a major monument, a canal and urban spaces for recreation
Random Thoughts:
-people spend most of there money close to where they live, not where they work, therefore, if people lived in downtown, they would spend more money downtown
-the college population of downtown C-bus is approx. 35,000 students (part and full time) offering places for even a small percentage of these students to live downtown will bring added money and vitality to the city.
-read William Whyte, he studies C-bus and rates it on a scale
-quote: "in modern american cities, you only need 4 continous square blocks to make a good city"
-context of historical villages: german village is good because of the continuity not necessarily the architecture
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1 comment:
interesting stuff Joe!
based on your script, If I have to simplify, I think there are 2 major components that you might want to focusing on:
1. By creating interaction and interconnecting between schools in Columbus could add activity, and revive the Columbus downtown.
2. Means of transportation in downtown area to bring public people back to downtown area.
seems so many plans and various study on the transportation to Columbus downtown, but yet we never seen anything developed out of this. The latest plan that I heard was 20/20 plan(monorail in columbus by the year of 2020.. but looks like its not going anywhere. $$ issues is major problem here.
Until they can establish the downtown first, there will be no investment on public transportation.
just my opinion
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