The gymnasium of the old armory was filled with the public and officials who came to see and be told about the plans to renovate Yoctangee Park.
Monday evening, in the center of the large city park adjacent to the downtown, about 100 attendees filled all available parking spots around Memorial Armory, and spent an hour and a half with more than a dozen displays interpreted by the designers of American Structurepoint LLC.
The fast-paced program funded by the federal “Appalachian Community Grant” must spend $34.5M on facilities there within about two and a half years from its public announcement on May 1st – along with another $5M from the state.
Concepts and draft renderings have been presented to the Ross County Commissioners and city officials, but this is the first interaction with the public.
My videos are the best edits of 32 minutes of the footage I took at the event, so watch them all to get the full story. But, here are highlights from my interaction with the planners:
Bill McEwan, senior architect at American Structurepoint, said they will have more public interaction for few more weeks…then they “need to be in high gear” to meet their deadline.
He said this open house was an important meeting, and it is far better to take comments and opinions in live interactions. McEwan said they will find a way to make the displays available physically or electronically, probably just after the new year.
Instead of cutting trees and disturbing “passive recreation” space behind the armory, the concept of additional buildings were shifted to one side of the Paint Street entrance road – which centralizes facilities and creates a campus-like grouping.
The styling of the new buildings is meant to be a foil or contrast to Memorial Armory, to allow the 1926-1927 historical building to stand out on its own.
More parking will be added around the armory. (The playground is not rendered in the illustrations, but it is planned to remain where it is.)
A separate building is required by UNESCO for a visitors center. Its tower concept is now reduced to a ground-level periscope view of Mount Logan, which makes it handicap accessible.
The “annex” is still two separate buildings, but with an atrium roof connecting the “Welcome Center” and “Market Pavilion.” The shed roof slopes down from the east towards the entrance road, leaving a tall open gathering space on the northeast corner.
The Market Pavilion will be open to uses other than the Saturday morning Farmers Market. 32 stalls would be accessible through roll-up overhead doors on both sides, with 20 feet of pavement for market vehicles.
People need to be seeking a place to park and enjoy the park, not seek a shortcut through the park – thus the plan is to remove part of extended Mill Street to the armory, pushing two-way traffic onto a widened lakeside road. (This concept is also in the 1990s park plan.)
Small roundabouts would remove stops and slowdowns on Yoctangee Boulevard and Water Street, the streets around the park where traffic should be…instead in the park.
Extended Mulberry Street remains intact and is improved, though it is not clear in the renderings.
The extent of street improvements around Yoctangee Park depends on how much funding is left from improvements inside the park.