Getting to Square One Park Central II: Further thoughtson downtown planning BY JERRY DIETHELM I'll admit I'm easy. When it comes to parks bond issues, it's predictably, "You had me at hello." But I also know that not everyone feels so strongly about such things, especially when the bonds being discussed are primarily for longer-range parks and open space land acquisition. I know my neighbor, who is otherwise a very sensible and prudent man, is already planning to vote no. Adding some Astroturf playfields and the like didn't soften his resolve. So, I put it to him this way. What if park acquisition included buying the butterfly parking garage from the county as a first step in reclaiming our North Park Block so that we could finally realize the central public square that has been in our Downtown Plan for years? He said, "You mean actually buying some downtown park and open space? We've never done that before have we? I mean, is it for sale? If so, I'd have to stop and rethink my position. What would a Park Block cost? And how does that relate to the discussion I've been hearing about enhancing our Farmers' and Saturday Market downtown?" Having gotten to square one, I told him about the nine who had met last week at Perugino to discuss enhancing our downtown market and the possibility of creating a central market square. We'd quickly agreed that the present Farmers' Market and Saturday Market in the Park Blocks were our most successful and vibrant downtown events. We talked about moving these markets to other locations such as the recent suggestion that we attach the market environment to a future City Hall. Consensus: probably not. Who knew where City Hall would end up and when? We imagined stretching the market out from the Park Blocks along an 8th Avenue Great Street, one that had the 20-foot sidewalks, awnings and adjoining shops that would add an indoor/outdoor shopping breadth and depth. Certainly a possibility if we could actually manage to adhere to and build the Downtown Plan's Great Street vision. What about moving the market activity to the riverfront? Or to the Fairgrounds? Good places all, but no, the market seemed at its best when it was where it belonged — in its place, at the center of the city, downtown where it all began. How then to enhance it, or was it just fine the way it was? Noa O'Hare said the present Farmers' Market was cramped and needed more space. As manager, he could use 50-some more locations on a busy Saturday, and maybe more, since there were potential sellers who had finally given up trying to get a spot because they were so limited. Lotte Streisinger in a recent R-G guest commentary cautioned about doing too much, too fast, potentially diluting the bustle that made the market special. She called a proposed year-round indoor facility well meaning, but a bad idea. Not having permanent boundaries allowed the market to expand and contract with the seasons. Being out in the fresh air and being integrated with the Saturday Market were what made it unique. Richard Wilen in a succeeding viewpoint disagreed: "Streisinger might love the ambiance, but setting up my entire stand and tearing it down in the evening, week after week, is tedious." And then the group could not resist some transformational designing. Hugh Pritchard suggested maybe just using half the butterfly parking garage, a minimalist approach, he called it, and keeping some of the parking. Otto Poticha suggested the possibility of stepping the reclaimed square down a bit to shelter it from traffic noise, since the garage was already an excavation. He reminded everyone of his students' proposals for using the 7th Aveue north side of the site for a new DIVA and/or possibly a Lane County Historical Society Museum building. Others recalled the several cycles of creative proposals for a North Park Block produced by students in Ron Lovinger's landscape design studios. Jerry of course wanted it all. A new Skinner Market Square in a reclaimed North Park Block that the markets could spill over into; a modest year-round indoor facility on the square; better designed support nearby for setting up temporary structures and servicing them with needed utilities; all the elegant lights, paving, trees, banners and bollards of a central public square instead of a parking garage that could become the heart of our downtown celebration and a symbol of "who we are together" in Eugene. But the Perugino Nine agreed that exploring the many possibilities and working out all the differences was really square two, three, four — it would be a design problem that would take time and participation, but it would be a good problem, a lively conversation (is there really any other kind?), and it was after all an unparalleled civic opportunity — if we could only get to square one. Jerry Diethelm is a Eugene architect, landscape architect, planning and urban design consultant. See his last column on this topic in the EW online archives for March 23.
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