Design by Passage team Kate Burgess, Tiffany Filatov, Gabe Onderdonk and Alec Stolz. Image design on front thumbnail听by听Art Envisioned team听Riley Chustz,听Camden Hocker,听McKinley Parks,听Logan Phelps and听Miles Shapleigh.
St. Stephen鈥檚 Plaza, located on Longmont's听Main Street in the center of the city's developing creative district, is in a prime position to become a creative hub听for Longmont, but it hasn't for a variety of reasons.
Some of the main obstacles: the plaza's current design lacks听"stay and gather" spaces听and the space feels听cold and uninviting during the winter.
Students听in CU 麻豆官网's听Spring 2020 Longmont Praxis Studio鈥揳ll seniors and landscape architecture majors鈥� said the听area could be transformed to an artistic space where people gather and attend musical or other events and would benefit by planting plants native to Colorado that thrive in urban environments. During the听class, teams of four to five students developed three听design solutions听(see below) for the plaza.
How the project started
The university-city听partnership听was organized through CEDaR's Community Design Workshop program, which creates opportunities for CU 麻豆官网 students and faculty to take part in community projects. Community Design Workshops begin听with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the city and the university, and the听MoUs guide classes, studios and other student and faculty research that address a priority defined by the community,听said Brian Muller, CEDaR's director.
Longmont's defined priority is the revitalization of the old downtown area, he said. The听project began听in spring 2019 with a studio,听linked seminar and several internships where students generated听design interventions听for enhancing Longmont's plazas, breezeways, alleyways and creative businesses in the downtown area, creating听the foundation for the spring 2020 studio for redesign of St. Stephens Plaza under the supervision of Jesse Van Horne, ENVD lecturer, and submission of a formal proposal currently under consideration by the Longmont Downtown Development Authority (LDDA).
"Many aspects of the students' design work听were听appealing to听LDDA, but because of the pandemic the project听has been put on hold," Van Horne said.
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Proposed redesigns of St. Stephen's Plaza include:听
Art Envisioned听by Riley Chustz,听Camden Hocker,听McKinley Parks,听Logan Phelps and听Miles Shapleigh, incorporates art into the functional aspects of the site in a way that coincides with the creative district鈥檚 identity and facilitates larger gatherings and events.听It also offers creates an environment more suited to hosting events and large gatherings, as well as individuals and small groups. These additions, along with a careful selection of plants, will make the space more inviting and lively throughout the day and year, the student group said.
Rib Rock Plaza听by Stephen Cannon, Tori Civitello, Ayushi Patel and Ian Fuller,听echos the variety of Colorado鈥檚 naturalistic and novel environments, as well as creates听an opportunity to provide a passive educational experience where users can see the geological layers beneath them and begin to understand the forces that created the area. A fountain听at the center of the plaza听features water that cascades over the layers before collecting into a reflection pool. Under this design, users听can walk through the plaza, sit and enjoy the sound of flowing water that masks听some of the听traffic sounds听or warm up next to听fire pits along the edge of the fountain. Other users can climb up into the rock layers and dive into the planted landscape that grows from the fountain to follow the water to its source.
Passage by听Kate Burgess, Tiffany Filatov, Gabe Onderdonk and Alec Stolz, opens听up the sight lines from Main Street to the back alley to allow a safe path from the pedestrian mall to the parking lot; adds听seating on the north side of the site to allow groups to gather and linger; and replaces the broken fountain with a circular fire pit to encourage families and groups to soak up the warmth on a cold day. The plan includes movable seating and two potential stage areas for different programming.
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