| Architecture Studio 281 | |
| Reports, Fillinger
|
Business Association Meeting with Joan WessellThe Downtown Business Association was established in 1982 to take control of the future of downtown Corvallis and its 400 businesses. The DBA has four areas of concentration: promotion, organization, economic restructuring, and design.The promotion aspect of the DBA tries to encourage people to visit downtown Corvallis by advertising and creating programs to enhance the downtown area. Some examples are the Red, White, and Blues festival that is held on the 4th of July and the nightlife shuttle (similar to our own DDS). The DBA was inspired by the Washington DC based Main Street Organization. In order to get things done; the DBA must organize themselves. They have a board of directors that is composed of a wide variety of people including the postmaster, an attorney, a jeweler, an insurance agent, a banker, a goldsmith, and many of the local small business owners. In addition to the board of directors there are numerous committees that deal with issues such as parking. A huge part of the restoration process was economic restructuring. This involves recruiting businesses to move to the downtown area, and improving the businesses that already exist. One way the DBA has done this is by their faade and upper floor improvement program. By improving the quality of the properties they have made the downtown area more appealing to business owners and potential tenants. One drawback to these improvements is the increase in prices for rent of these properties. The cost per square ft is now about $1.25 /mo. as opposed to $0.15/ mo. before the renovations. The final aspect of the DBA is design. Along with the faade and upper floor improvement program, the DBA is trying to improve and redesign the downtown itself. Examples of these improvements are the trash receptacles with flower planters on the top and the street lamps that can accommodate flower baskets in the spring and summer. There are plans for a complete redesign of First Street and the Waterfront Park. G.I.S.What is GIS?
click on (public works) then follow the GIS link A GIS reader is available to be downloaded from the GIS ftp site and also can be found at www.ersi.com. This GIS reader will allow you to sort through and look any information the GIS office in corvallis has to offer.
Planning MeetingCorvallis originated close to one hundred years ago, because stern ships found the location convenient for riverfront warehousing. Warehousing along the river, in Corvallis continued through the seventies. This is how Corvallis became a river town. First street is closest to the river and so on.Over the years OSU has become a major contributor to the city of Corvallis. The university is not only the largest employer in Corvallis, it is also a major reason why the population has risen to fifty thousand people as of this year. A decade ago architecture, and landscape architecture students at OSU were very involved in city planning. They were helping downtown Corvallis deal with being on highway ninety nine. They wanted to run a bypass off of highway ninety nine down along the river. No one was really thinking of the river as a resource. Running a bypass along the river would separate the river from the rest of the town. They ended up changing their minds and moved the bypass to the other side of the river, so the city could take advantage of the river and not block it out. There has always been a coral between store owners and pedestrians. Store owners didn't want trees on the sidewalks, pedestrians did. Arguments between store owners and pedestrians always go to a vote and pedestrians always win. Corvallis is more of a pedestrian oriented town. Because OSU is such a focal point in Corvallis the city decided to create Madison Ave. which connects the University with the down town area. Cars may go down Madison Ave. but is is more pedestrian oriented. Each year streets in Corvallis become geared more around pedestrians, eventually the city wants to beautify Madison Ave from the university clear down to the river. Although the city seems to agree more with the pedestrians they do things to help out the store owners, like placing bricks around trees, so when the tree raises the sidewalk only bricks need replaced not the entire sidewalk. The city keeps the same pattern throughout the town. The same benches, trash bins, lights etc.. Whenever there is a major problem between pedestrians and store owners task forces are assigned. For example, pedestrianizing the streets took away parking so they are working out a way to create more parking for the stores. The idea of a mall in Corvallas has been brought up many times. The city decided that if a mall were to be placed within city limits it would have to be right down town . This way business would not be directed out of town hurting the store owners. (Example, Eugene with Valley River Center.) When large buildings such as Wall Mart etc. are constructed strict laws apply. This often drives those stores out of Corvallis which is seen as a good thing. One reason the city is doing so well is because a bill was passed a while ago to fix up all of the old buildings down town. This made the city much more beautiful. The downtown area of Corvallis is a very flexible area as far a zoning goes. Commercial and residential buildings are readilly mixed together. The growth rate in Corvallis is approximately four percent a year. The average family in Corvallis lives on a detached 8,000 square foot lot. This is the biggest reason why the down town area has not increased in size. You can go pretty much anywhere in Corvallis in five minutes. There is no major reason for someone to live right down town. Like in Portland people have to fight traffic so many choose to live down town. That isn't necessarily the American dream. The American dream involves owning your own property etc.. So that is what most people in Corvallis want to do. Tour with Jim HowlandIts amazing when an eighty-year old man can provide a pictoral history of a place, let alone give historical walking tours of Corvallis daily. His personal history started while he attended Oregon State, and continues to this day participating in the redevelopment of downtown riverfront. Eyes like his have seen downtown Corvallis fluctuate from the post-war sprawl, to the current interest in urban housing.Corvallis began as a western supply town for local farmers, and today is the home of many software firms. With growth, the lumber mills and docks have disappeared from the downtown and have become civic buildings, warehouses, and numerous parking lots. The latter has been an important issue to the citizens of Corvallis since WWII. Parking lots replaced stores, mills and warehouses in the fifties when people began to car-dependent. At that time, houses exponentially grew around the downtown, where land was inexpensive and zoned improperly. This growth led to the demise of many downtown businesses, and converted the riverfront into a parking lot. The most drastic change occurred when the city sold the city hall to a department store. What remains today is a large brass plaque outside of crumbling store. After that loss, preservationists saved 22 buildings and many others throughout the seventies. Another trend at that time was to adaptively reuse many of those historic buildings. Two of the three hotels became low-income housing, renting for $0.15 per SQ FT. Today, the renting cost is $1.50 per SQ FT, if not more. There is growing pressure to build new housing downtown, from students, residents and software firms. Within the past five years, the downtown has attracted 10 new businesses, and 5 restaurants. The four original theaters still exist today, competing with the omni- and multiplexes in the surrounding sprawl. The community contributed $600,000 to new pavings and artwork for Madison Avenue. Each summer they commission a local artist to create an łalleywork.˛ The city and community are working together on a vast riverfront project, with plazas, pathways, and a biogrid of vegetation to preserve the riverfront. The riverfront plan does worry many environmentalists, for it will call for the removal of many trees. Mr. Howland, a civic engineer, mentioned that the banks arenąt stable enough even for the trees, many of which are falling into the river. The city hired a specialist that proposed the current plan, which is to plant a system of vegetation on multiple terraces, to make the banks stronger. Whatever the environmental cost, the actual bond issued for the renovation is $9.5 million. Corvallis is a very progressive city that believes in community empowerment, and tries to make their city a better place for everyone. For more information, maps, pictures and tours, contact the city of Corvallis at: www.ci.corvallis.or.us. Make sure to download Adobe Acrobat to read the files. |
|
|
|
|
Architecture and Allied Arts, The University of Oregon1999 |
|