masterplan prelim

The adjacency plan depicts the relative relationships that I would like to explore, while I would rather eliminate the entire core, it seems in the best interest to keep certain buildings (i.e. any historic or relatively high density office spaces) for pragmatic reasons.
One of the main items I would like to explore is the relationship of the green areas to the different areas in the masterplan (i.e. large recreational area of residential area vs. small greenspace for the office/govt area). The greenspace would also serve as transitional/connections due to the roadways being converted into greenspace (major traffic would be diverted below ground with minimal interactions for street cars).
Additionally, I would purpose the museum of art to be relocated to the riverfront, for maxium accessibility and visibility in the downtown corridor.
The residential component would be high density, based on the demographic numbers from the previous posting, there is a large void of inhabitants in the downtown - I would purpose to add between 3500-4000 inhabitants in the core area.

Population Data

Population, Number of Households and Employment numbers are based from 2005, the most current statistics that were provided to me from the MORPC. Data also includes projections through 2030 in 5 year increments. All data is for Downtown Columbus/Central Business District - defined by the Scioto River, 70/71 interchanges and 670.

Population:
2000: 3,566
2005: 4,357
2010: 10,465
2015: 14,434
2020: 16,726
2025: 18,952
2030: 19,141

Households:
2000: 2,530
2005: 3,101
2010: 7,401
2015: 8,453
2020: 9,476
2025: 10,680
2030: 93,274

Employment:
2000: 89,077
2005: 97,387
2010: 103,229
2015: 106,305
2020: 109,473
2025: 112,933
2030: Projection not available

Suburbia

Post looks at some of the characteristics that draw people to the suburbs:

Benefits of Suburban Lifestyle:

Location of home to
-Schools
-Doctor/Dentist office's
-Retail
-Resturants
-Parks
-Work

Misc:
-The "white picket fence"/green grass
-Security
-overabundance of space (spacious homes large yards)
-freedom associated with living in the suburbs (i.e. multiple cars)
-peace and quite
-pedestrian nature of neighborhoods (treelined streets, kids playing in the streets, people walking their dogs, bikes, cookouts, etc)

Masterplan Narrative

The downtown area as it stands today can be summed up by one word: void. The downtown area is composed of an estimated 5,000 people, but when I walked through the downtown area to document the area (a weekend afternoon), it seemed as if the city was absent of all inhabitants. The only life in the city was from the people at the busstops and the crackheads at the river, and to be frank, this is not the image the city wants to depict when advertising itself to developers and potential businesses it wants to attract. The city has some postives going for it, it is the capital of Ohio, so there is a strong prescence of government in the city as well as having a strong financial prescence, several banks and major corportations are located in downtown (Huntington, Nationwide, etc). A masterplan can take advantage of these positives, the city could invigorate itself economically with the addition of a controlled plan of residential development, focusing on density and amentities found in suburbia, look at plans of incorporating pedestrian friendly methods of design and scale. By creating a pedestrian friendly core, that would implement activities/needs from everyday living, this would ultimately invigorate the local economy as well as the daily lives of the inhabitants and recreate the vibrancy of the downtown area.

New Urbanism:
http://www.newurbanism.org/newurbanism.html

Follow-up Prior to wedding

This is just a small recap from before the wedding and honeymoon. I talked with both Michael and Denise prior to leaving and thought I would add a little recap of what I am planning on working this week and next.
Regarding the diagrams from before, I am going to research some census information and add that to the diagrams, which suburbs have the largest contignet working in the downtown area (more then likely Bexley, Upper Arlington, Worthington and New Albany). Additionally, I will also update the diagram to include the Scioto Mile project, since it is being implemented. A diagram will also be looked at which will overlay both the existing city grid with the original grid (which was more successful) and note the changes to grid, thereby providing a basis for the grid shift. One other relevent issue is the underground garages and walkways as well as skywalks, with the addition of these paths of movement, it takes away from the streetlevel vibrancy of downtown.

Recent Articles from the Dispatch

Overview of articles:
The websites below are from the local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch. The articles address some of the current conditions that exist in Columbus and some oppurtunities that the city feels would be viable solutions to the current climate of the downtown area.
The first articles deal with streetcars, a topic that the mayor has championed as his cause for re-invirgorating the downtown area and the local economy. The first article examines the past layout of the streetcar system and how it was connected to local suburbs as well as the transformation of the streetcar system into the current method of transportation of transit buses. The second article is an editorial on the concept, stating that the current plan only covers less then 3 miles.
The Dispatch also ran an article relating to the retail trend of downtown, which is virtually non-existant. The article offers some interesting figures, the amount of people that lived in downtown the past +/-50 years has dropped from 30,000 to 5,000 people. It also states a very real fact, that no major retailer has any interest in developing in downtown, they are in fact interested in developing in the suburbs, so downtown is left with a huge economic void. According to the article, the outlook is very dim for the next 40 years, which is the estimate that developers give for downtown to rebound.
The last article is about the riverfront (Scioto Mile) and how construction will begin in the next few months. The riverfront remains a huge oppurtunity for the city to create a destination as many festivals are located along the river during the summer months.
Response:
The development of the streetcar remains an interesting topic in Columbus, does the city develop the streetcars which mimic the local bus system. The real question is what is the overall plan for Columbus development? The city currently has an estimated 5,000 residents spread over a large area (weak connection between various developments), and no destinations in the core of downtown. The city offers very little in terms of lifestyle, no retail, no acceptable parks or greenspaces - these issues along with other issues remain the bigger issues that the city should focus on first, creating a holistic urban enviornment that would cater to the daily lives of the residents. The solutions that will be investigated in the coming weeks looks to create this holistic environment rather then relying on a strategy based on a "gimic." The streetcars will eventually have a place in the downtown area, but first the pieces need to be in place prior to implementing the streetcars. The streetcars will probably suffer the same initial fate as the buses, where they will be the toast of the town for the first few years, but become a haven for the less fortunate (currently buses in Columbus are preceived as dirty and disgusting).
Along the lines of "gimics," the Civic Center drive project seems a little contrived, it will be a greenspace along the riverfront for various vendors and retailers, unfortunately, it seems that the developers may not have completely focused on the needs of the various events (see editiorial).

Articles on Streetcars in Columbus:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/14/OLDTROLLEY.ART_ART_04-14-08_A1_P59S41B.html?sid=101

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2008/04/12/Sawyer__SAT_ART_04-12-08_A11_RN9T7PV.html?sid=101

Downtown Retail Outlook:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/04/07/ZONE0407.ART_ART_04-07-08_C10_DU9QVOI.html?sid=101

Civic Center Drive:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/10/CIVICWORK.ART_ART_04-10-08_B4_LK9SUE6.html?sid=101