It was another warm Saturday morning in Fresno. Tower District residents walked, biked, and drove to a 3rd in a string of community meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to craft a Streetscape Master Plan that will guide City of Fresno infrastructure investment in the district.
Meeting #1
Saturday, July 25, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm: Visioning Workshop to develop design alternatives
Meeting #2
Tuesday, July 28, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m: Workshop to develop the design concepts
Designs, critique, discussions (1, 2)
Meeting #3
Saturday, September 27, 11:00am-1:00pm: Workshop on specific elements and details
When I arrived to The Landmark at 11am, I locked my bike the the patio railing because there was no bike rack nearby. As I walked in the meeting was calling to order. Many of the faces were familiar from previous meetings and daily life in the neighborhood.
I settled into a table near the back, joined by friends Travis, Ed and Adam. We were ready to get to work and start a collaborative design process. All we needed was a brief update about the latest design, outline of the meetings goals, and some instructions of the task at hand. 15-20 minutes would have been a reasonable time for that.
However, was not the case. From 11 until several minutes after 12 the group was talked to. Those that held the mic included: Director of Tower District Marketing Committee, Bill Kuebler; Council member Blong Xiong; consulting architect and planner, Mark Steele; City of Fresno traffic engineer, Brian Jones; and consulting architect and planner, Diego Velasco. Everyone at our table was frustrated by the slow start and several escaped to the Landmark bar for a drink to kill the time.
The most informative of the 5 speakers was Brian Jones, traffic engineer with the City of Fresno. He spoke about the narrowing Wishon to 2 lanes and using narrowed lanes and sidewalk bulb outs to make divers feel less safe driving fast. In other words using design and drivers’ natural reactions in order to create more bicycle and pedestrian friendly traffic patterns. Very cool stuff, but some residents had a hard time believing that bikes and cars could use the same lane.
The important items to know about the updated design is that the much discussed traffic circles have been removed and the pilot project to implement the design has been selected as the strip of Olive between Wishon and Maroa.
design workshop
Our task for the meeting was to select preferences in street furniture. We were given a matrix of furniture to select. This included: paving, bike racks, seating, planters, trash cans, lighting, kiosks, etc.
Our table often circled one option that best fit our preference but wrote out notes that they should be commissioned from local artists and designers. Other than some of the photos of the existing, nothing seemed to call out as authentic to the Tower.
In the few minutes we had left we noted on the plan where we believed this street furniture should be placed. If more than 35-40 minutes had been devoted to the design workshop, we would have been able to make more thorough design decisions.
I had also expected that we as a group would have some part in selecting what the first pilot project would be. It seems that decision was made between the Tower District Market and the city. Work on the pilot project is expected to begin as early as January of 2010.
While I have been frustrated with the process, I see that there has been a lot of hard work going into the Tower District Streetscape Master Pland. And it is comforting to see that the design is improving and that the pilot project will actually get built.
other outcomes
One encouraging outcome from these meeting is that a group of residents has organized to repair the lights strung over olive. They are taking $10 donations for lightbulbs and selling $25 t-shirts with a cool design.
So if you’d like to see Tower shine a little brighter, then pitch in at least $10. I’m sure Flo will comment here and let you know how to donate and where to buy t-shirts.
The slow start was hugely dissapointing. It felt like most of the creative and collaborative energy was drained out for all the talking.
“While I have been frustrated with the process, I see that there has been allot of hard work going into the Tower District Streetscape Master Plan…”
A LOT is two words (NOT allot). Please make a note of this, as this is one of my biggest pet peeves. Its not alot either, its A LOT.
PS I am glad the traffic circles are off the table.
Actually Geoff both allot and alot are real words. Allot is to parcel out or assign & Alot is a town in India. I did use the wrong word which has now been corrected. A lot is a very great degree or extent.
Now if you don’t get along with a town in India, that’s not my fault.
As one of the local artists, I appreciate seeing that your table included in your notes the desire to see the street furniture designed by local artists. The M.W. Steele Group has asked me for my input and I am happy to give it.
I too wish we had had more time to actually contribute our preferences and thoughts at this meeting, especially since I had to leave early (due to needing to run to the fairgrounds to judge some art). Our work continues . .
Update from Bill Kuebler on how the pilot project was chosen:
When trying to determine what area to focus on for the pilot project we wanted to meet several criteria:
1) An area as highly visible as possible. The more visible the project, the better our chances for securing additional funding next fiscal year to do more of the project area.
2) An area in need of some TLC.
3) An area that incorporated as many of the elements of the entire plan as possible so it would truly be demonstrative of things to come.
4) An area that would equally benefit both districts 1 and 3.
By selecting this particular section we are able to accomplish all of these objectives and more.
1) We get to show one of the many T-intersections that are to come.
2) This particular T-intersection (Olive & Maroa) just happens to have red curbs on all sides so the loss of on-street parking will be minimal.
3) We get to create a unique pedestrian cross-walk (pub crawl at Fulton & Olive).
4) By creating one section of the bar hop area, it will make it easier to demonstrate how the balance of the walkway will look, which should make it easier to enlist the support of the private property owners and the business owners who will be allowing the use of their property for the walkway.
5) We get to demonstrate what a major intersection (Olive & Wishon) will look like.
6) We get to demonstrate one section of expanded sidewalks (Olive & Wishon).
7) We get to newly design two of the most used bus stops in the Tower (Dollar Tree & Dragon’s Treasure).
8 ) We get to create one, and hopefully, two information Kiosks (Olive & Wishon, Olive & Fulton).
9) This is an area in need of lots of additional plantings – plus, we get to replace the funky planters by the Chicken Pie Shop with permanent plantings.
10) This area provides an opportunity for way-finding signage.
11) This area is immediately adjacent to what was recognized by the community as one of the gateway entrances to the Tower.
12) Within this area we will be able to demonstrate a multitude of street furnishings (benches, bike racks, etc.).
It really seems like the ideal location for a pilot project.
After much discussion, the unanimous recommendation for this section came from the MWSteele group, several city department representatives, and members of our working group who were selected by our two council representatives. The working group includes a good mix of residents, property owners and business owners.
good synopsis. i think it makes sense, because it is one of the “main” thoroughfare and center of the tower district. although i think there should be more efforts to integrate the north and south streets of vanness, wishon and fulton streets to this intersection. those streets need some tlc too! well i hope to get tower lights up those other streets in the coming years!
so does that mean the design process with the community is over? is the tower design committee involved in this process? ultimately is bill kuebler going to be the one finalizing the decisions on the street furnishings? perhaps we should be more proactive, and put together some artists proposals for benches and kiosks? there are plenty of us in the architecture, artists and design business on this list, or ask the 5 tower architects in the area, to collaborate and put together a pack of products we like and tell the steele group to look into them. they want to start works in january, and i feel we need to submit our proposals asap!
Flo,
I bet there will be one more community meeting. The whole Tower District Design Review Committee has not been involved, but the Design Review chair Mike Clifton is on the committee Bill mentions as well as Chris Johnson.
While I don’t think Bill is making the decisions, I think he has had much more access and input than anyone else.
I like your idea about being proactive. I’ve thought a lot about bus shelter design. That is something I’d like to contribute. Something that we design would surely be better than a prefabricated that is selected and installed.
i think it would be awesome to have a design competition, but now that i think of it, i unfortunately don’t see logistically how we could accomplish a completely custom designed bus shelter within the time frame do design, detail, fabricate and install (and this is without even considering the budget constraints). so i think what we should consider is getting a pre-fab bus shelter (example http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/photos/2007-11-29-bus_shelter.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2007/11/dc_introduces_new_bus_shelter_design_to.php&usg=__h7W2k-NL-bBVwcJHq8U7nd7k_eo=&h=235&w=300&sz=14&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=mUgp7m0dey2nlM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbus%2Bshelter%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1) that have the following key components (identified from the meeting): 1)seating (ADA compliant), 2) shade and 3)kiosk to display bus info/times/advertise theater and gallery events. but i propose that we customize the pre-fab to make it unique to the tower. we could paint it with a custom color scheme, add neon lights (possibly powered by solar panels like the ones at fresno state)(or any other light installation design), and add appropriate font text and signs (to match the tower street signs). maybe we could hire an ironmonger and detail it…i would love to integrate the tower theater light sculpture somewhere into it? we could still host a competition, and require artists to all use the same shelter as a template (so it looks like chicago’s cow parade) and make it different. then if we have these proposals and figure out the contacts/costs, we should give them to clifton, johnson, kuebler and also steele/diego to legitimately consider our design?
Thanks for the write up. I’m really missing out on these meetings.
The only way to go, is pro fresno.
They way those people are grasping at this shining light in the Tower district says a lot…..allot…..alot
Flo,
I think a major challenge to a prefabricated bus shelter is how it adapts to different climate conditions and how it fits within the authenticity of the Tower District.
Climate wise, Fresno has some unique conditions. Additionally the conditions of the two locations Bill mentioned are different. In front of Dollar Tree the buss stop faces south with full sun exposure. The stop next to Dragons Treasure faces East and is shielded from afternoon sun by the building. Both sites would have to consider rain. But again the prevailing wind would create different conditions at each site.
I’d say we should inquire what the budjet might be for the bus stops and go from there.
i am curious as to what exactly is the historic style of the tower district? don’t get me wrong, i am a huge historic preservationist (worked/volunteered in national trusts/reason i wanted to be an architect and studied in europe), but to be honest, i am not sure what it is in our neighborhood. is it the art deco style of the tower theater? the rest of tower is kind of a hodge podge of other types of architecture, so i worry we limit our design sensibilities when we try too hard to be “historic”. i have lived in the uk and traveled a bit in europe, and i am used to walking in hundreds and hundreds of year old towns and cities with contemporary transportation shelters and stations (london’s jubilee line). but of course i want something that blends well with the area, but i think it is difficult to get something historically accurate to the neighborhood when we never had a bus shelter there to begin with. so i would prioritize having good artistic and functional design, possibly integrating green technology, over historic accurateness, that does not look cheap and deter vandalism. but that is just my twopence…
but i think you have legitimate concerns about shelter being adaptable to climate conditions, so i just spoke to the architect at my office, richard andersen, who did the bus station and shelters at machester mall on blackstone. he used steel tubing, and said it was most important to get a deep canopy to create decent shade. he said we can spec the canopy to shift according to the pattern of the sun on each site. he said the hardest problem he had with his design was dealing with vandalism. the lexan he used to screen wind was frequently melted by cigarette butts, while the custom glass curvature of one of the walls were intentionally broken several times. the city did not maintain the design, because their solution to all repairs is to add more steel bars. also, he placed bus info higher at the top to prevent further vandalism.
but yeah you are right, we can’t really do anything until we get a budget! lol!!
The meeting was rushed. The people at my table also rushed by the process.
Would like to see a tentative Design Budget reflecting exactly what dollar amount should go to the “Art” and “Cultural” aspect of Tower for the public; not allocated to curb, traffic and walks right of way improvements.. A portion should be set aside for this purpose and be guaranteed.
It is not too early in the process to give the public the figures.
Public Art Grants, recycled product grants, state water efficient grants for waterwise component equipment can all start to be considered now. including urban tree grants.
We actually came hoping to see a Master Plan .
I love the different styles of Bike racks. Very Cool!
I think there’s going to be a lot of opposition from the business owners along Fulton, to possibly losing parking spaces as the Tower lacks a sufficient supply. In addition, it looks like the little plaza next to 1105 N Fulton is not part of this plan–the gay community wanted to place flag poles and street furniture there.
Based upon the Mayor’s budget update to City Council this morning, I’d have to say that this project will be shelved indefinitely. I can’t see how the Council can justify spending money on this when they’re facing a %27-plus million dollar deficit in June.