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Gateway
Arts District Design Charrette
The design charrette was held on a very
warm Saturday in July. Over 40 residents, interested
artists and property owners from Mount Rainier, North
Brentwood, Brentwood and Hyattsville participated in
the charrette that was held in the Hyattsville City
Hall.
Concept
plans by a University of Maryland landscape architecture
studio, led by Professor Chang in conjunction with the
Neighborhood Design Center and Gateway CDC, were displayed
on the wall. These had been developed in spring 2002.
US 1 rerouting, redevelopment of sites, and the provision
of gathering spaces provoked discussion among attendees.
Marking up an elevation
The Design Charrette activities included
a presentation and discussion on design elements, a
field visit, and then placing design ideas on paper
for presentation to the room. Participants were divided
into six teams that walked the US 1 corridor. Four site
visits focused on a quarter mile (the walking distance)
around the four art space sites,
and a fifth visited an adjacent area. A sixth looked
exclusively
at
modifying
the design of the stream valley green space.
University of Maryland Landscape Architecture Studio
concept plan for North Brentwood African-American Museum
Each group was challenged to answer questions
such as how high should buildings be and how close together?
What sort of activities should take place and when?
What can be done to improve the overall quality of walking
along US 1?
What goes where?
Many
groups answered questions relating to their particular
sites. For example, how to connect the stream valley
park green space to the Gateway Arts District, the proposed
North Brentwood Museum to the heart of the town, and
the Gateway Arts District to the adjacent city of Washington,
D.C.
On return from the site, after a
working lunch provided by Franklins, the teams
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Developing a site plan
began
sketching on site plans and elevations
for their section of
the US 1 corridor.
In
addition to using verbal and drawn descriptions, the
teams were provided with image stickers from the Community
Imaging Workshop.
Once each team had completed
its
design proposal, the room met to hear team reports.
One team gave a bilingual report in English and Spanish.
Many of the designs focused on appearance, traffic
calming, and increasing shade, parking, and pedestrian
connections. Paint was often suggested as an easy-to-organize,
short-term design solution to the corridor's often
run-down image.
Lots of team discussion
As
a wrap-up, the room came up with design proposals
to improve the appearance, to unify, and to increase
the chances of success of the Gateway Arts District.
These proposals were: Encourage auto repair shops
to improve their appearance, bury/move utility lines
behind buildings, install multiple and Gateway-Arts-District-specific
patterned pedestrian crossings, slow traffic, develop
a continuous bike path, create value (and inject money),
add greenery, develop more parking including structured
parking, add flowers (landscaping), add family-style
restaurants, safe kid spaces and gathering places
along the corridor, connect the corridor to Metro,
develop more apartment/townhouse-style housing for
students, build funky bus shelters, build/ convert
existing buildings into live/work space for artists,
add benches, add trash cans, use exciting colors and
designs to change appearances (not functions), balance
hardscape and landscape, build on and expand existing
place-based culture, retain landmark buildings, attract
money (investment), and involve property owners. The
Design Charrette ended in the early afternoon, but
many went afterwards to Franklins and continued the
discussion. In
the October follow-up workshop, the
Gateway Arts
The Gateway Arts District is a quilt of cultures
District
Planning
Team will present the staff proposal for comment and
discussion.
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