"Those blocks need to be complete and contiguous on all sides. "Everything I was ever taught and have experienced makes it pretty clear that cities and urban areas are built of blocks, just like building blocks," he says. Several architects disagree.Īrchitect Mark Smith, a former member of the city's Urban Design Commission, says removing buildings is bad urban design. That's especially evident when buses are detoured to the outer loop, where people are uncomfortable waiting for buses, Fruhling says.ĭevelopers of the 100 block proposal insist that replacing the Fairchild building at the corner of Mifflin and Fairchild with a private plaza is what will enliven Fairchild Street, offering a contrast to the buildings around it. However, he says that the Capitol Square's outer loop has been neglected by the city from a pedestrian standpoint. "Generally, it's a longer blank faade of buildings along sidewalks, where people are walking, without activity, and there's no doors."įruhling, who oversaw development of the city's downtown plan, doesn't offer any other examples of dead space downtown.
What exactly is a dead zone? "I don't know that there is a technical definition of 'dead zone,'" says city planner Bill Fruhling. Critics counter that a private plaza proposed for the street corner would be "dead space" and fail to achieve the developers' goals. Supporters of the project on the 100 block of State Street say that Fairchild Street, as it exists now, is decrepit and a little spooky, in need of livening up. In the fight over the private plaza proposed for the corner of Mifflin and Fairchild streets, the terms "dead zone" and "dead space" have been bandied about by both sides.
0 kommentar(er)
