Hey, so I thought I would share some of the work in progress plans for East College Street and ask for any input/criticism or reaction you have to the site plan and architecture. Please don't feel like you have to be some architectural historian or urban planner to give feedback. The wisdom of crowds is sometimes more valuable then the expertise of one.


So here's the site plan. Looking from left to right you are on East College Street. The first shadowed building you see all the way on the left is the Apollo. As you come down East College Street you see the three blocked out buildings which represent the new structures. It begins where the Buick Dealership is currently located. The first building is 3.5 stories tall, has about 8,000 sq feet of commercial space and fourteen apartments. As you move further down the street you come to a cut away which ideally will lead people into an urban courtyard in the middle of the site. The restaurants located in the project will ideally have beer gardens and patio seating on the corners. We're unsure of what will go in the courtyard, but we're thinking a bit more active of a "green" space, maybe involving some concert area for the warmer months, a fountain and some chess tables.

The next building begins at about where Rax was located. That building has about 4,000 sq feet of commerical and 29 apartments. The first floor apartments that face the courtyard will have storefront space also, allowing people who want to have an office/shop in downtown a place to both work and live.

The third building is one that is situated North/South. It is smaller, one story and has about 6 loftspaces designed for artisans or folks who have small businesses and want to be able to live where they work. One of the ideas behind the live-work units is to create more storefront and give people a reason to walk around the courtyard.

The tiny fourth building you see at the end of the courtyard is a TBD community space.

All of the residents will park underneath the building in basement parking. For the commerical space folks will park along the edges, similar to what currently exists in the downtown.

About 14 of the total 49 apartments will be held as affordable for modest income people. A few will be sold at cost to people who income qualify. The rest will be market rate housing starting at 140,000 and going up. Plans call for geothermal heating and cooling, a green roof and hopefully some solar.

All of the retail space will be independently owned - no chain stores.



And here's the architecture. The view your looking at is from the corner of Pleasant Street and College Street. It will be a brick facade. The challenge is to mix something that blends in with the downtown architecture but isn't too little house on the prairie.




You can find more info about the project at www.sustainableca.com

Feel free to let me know your thoughts, comments, questions, criticisms, etc.

Josh

oh and major props go to garrett miller for designing the website.