August 04, 2004
City Hall/Pacwest Center Transit Mall Design Workshop
Back on July 28, we attended the transit mall revitalization project "station as place" design workshop for the planned light rail stops at City Hall and Pacwest Center. We're fairly late with this item, mainly because we've been playing catch-up for days on end now, while suffering what we can only assume is some sort of seasonal motivational malaise. Given all of that, this item may be a little more relaxed than our others, as we simply try to make sure we don't let this item get away from us altogether.
First of all, here is the handout (pdf) from this session. It's front page illustrates one of the concepts surrounding potential for these stations, described by one member of the design team as connecting the South Park Blocks to the Willamette River. In another context, given various aspects of the City within that corridor, it was also described as connecting the cultural to the commercial.
Some background was provided on discussions from the previous design workshop for this station, including: this area of the City has a 9-5 identity to the east and an evening and weekend identity to the west, with the area immediately surrounding the Pacwest Center being a day-to-day working environment; Madison Avenue could become a central pedestrian connection, perhaps with station-sited artwork helping to guide people to that street; the station should use the existing architecture as a basis, or at least be respectful of it; a willingness to invite the public into the building as if an extension of the sidewalk or street (similar discussions arose regarding the US Bancorp Tower); and questions of what could be done to reinforce street-level retail currently in the area, as well as encourage more.
The Pacwest Center was described by the design team at this workshop as a "fairly unique building," in that it occupies an entire City block, as a "very gorgeous setting," and as "already a great place."
Possible plans -- or perhaps they are more accurately described as preliminary discussions -- for the station along the SW 6th Avenue of the Pacwest Center were presented first. As with another recent item with which we needed to play catch-up, we're going to bullet point many of these in the name of, well, catching up.
- Curbside parking outside the University Club?
- "This already is a well-developed place here."
- How can the design bring in the architecture of the station without compromising the Pacwest Center building?
- Use the existing covered canopy?
- Brick planter walls as already-available seating? This would keep the existing pedestrian through-zone.
- Shelters over the brick planter walls?
- Shelters along the street itself, by the rail line?
There was a sample (and by no means final) computer-assisted design simulation of a possible approach to new shelters. We don't have a copy of this, but it was a very minimalist design, focused mainly on an overhead shelter and supporting posts, with the option of fairly sparse vertical panels to block the wind. If viewed head-on, the elements are comparatively unassuming. It would appear that shelters will be placed towards the corners of stations. Some discussion ensued as to the possibility of not having wind scfeens at train stations because the plan is for no more than a 7-8 minute wait between trains.
A question was raised as to the viability of using the brick planters as seating, especially when considering the needs of the elderly. "Perching should be more considered for the pigeons," one person remarked. Referring to the Great Pedestrian & Transit Streets (pdf) analysis, this same person added: "A world-class design would not base itself on people sitting on brick walls."
There was also some discussion as to the capacity of the sample shelter design to satisfy the needs of people using wheelchairs or scooters for mobility.
Discussion switched to preliminary approaches to the station on SW 5th Avenue, between the Pacwest Center and City Hall, including general discussion of the existing architecture and design themes.
- Small shallow indentation in Pacwest Center mirrors the deeper one across the street on City Hall.
- On this side, the Pacwest Center is closer to the street than it is on 6th.
- Suspended glass canopy over planters? No discussions with Pacwest people on this yet.
- Official this is the back entrance to City Hall.
- Entertaining the idea of not carrying the red transit mall bricks through the sidewalk outside City Hall for historical reasons.
Workshop discussion opened up to further questions, and there was more conversation about the station on SW 6th. According to the design team, there would be standard transit mall brick paving through this block, a "bulb-out" on the west side of the street would protect an existing older tree ("not yet a Heritage Treet but it probably should be"), and parking and loading zones would exist along the west side of the street.
There was some dispute between the University Club and Ambassador Hotel over whether or not loading zones are appropriate in front of the Ambassador Hotel (which shares that side of SW 6th with the University Club). This led to a reminder that part of the plan for the revitalization of the transit mall is the development of a public/private management entity.
There was also some indication of pulling out the median on Madison between SW 5th and 6th, extending the northside sidewalk, and having on-street parking on the south side of Madison. On-street parking on Madison west of 6th would remain. Further traffic-related conversation attempted to detail how access to various area buildings would be affected by the fact that cars cannot make the right turns over light rail tracks.
We can't find the specific connection, but an interesting historical point was mentioned. Since the transit mall was originally designed to end at Madison, 50% of the buses used to turn at Madison.
It was also pointed out that a timelapse sequence conducted by the Project for Public Spaces (the same group that has conducted place audits of Pioneer Courthouse Square in recent months) in the 1980s revealed that three-fourths of transit patrons perched or leaned rather than taking a seat. It was said that the figure is less now, but if the specific number was mentioned, we didn't catch it. One of the design team asserted that how people wait at transit stops is tied to how long they wait.
This of course all related back to the discussion over the existing brick planters outside the Pacwest Center. The design team said that a "variety of heights" is what would be needed. In fact, the planters along SW 6th already offer such a variety.
Similar to questions raised at the design workshops for other stations, one participant asked if the problem of loitering might require different canopy designs for the stations. The design team said it's a question that is being raised by the business community along the mall, and that while the current shelters provide good weather protection (if not the best), they also clearly provide for "non-transit uses."
Greg Baldwin (of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, the firm handling this design process) suggested that "part of it is a design issue, [but] another part is management." According to Baldwin, there is a City precedent for "abutting private sector policing the right of way." A member of the design team itself added that within the "footprint of the shelter," TriMet has authority to police.
A question was raised about the possibiltiy of adapting the current shape of the shelters for historical purposes, at least along the currently-existing portion of the mall. Baldwin claimed an interest in "getting back to the bronze" by ditching the coats of brown paint that the shelters now have.
The design team offered something of an explanation of an approach to the shelters, and how the stations can be "accessible to all" without negatively impacting the location, by suggesting TriMet's focus shift "from shelter to access."
Referring to the "gesture" to City Hall made by the shallow cutout on the SW 5th side of the Pacwest Center, the design team said that there had been consideration of creating paint connections between the two buildings, but they didn't want to "invite mid-street crossing." There is, however, the possibility of some tree removal to open up the views of City Hall's historic architecture.
Some random items from towards the end of the workshop. The mall contains around 600 trees. Of these, about 140 will be impacted by the revitalization project, but they expect to put back more than that. A comparison was drawn -- in terms of "spatially as well as historically" appraching the design issues -- between the interplay (or lack thereof) of the Pacwest Center and City Hall across the divide of SW 5th to the interplay between (or lack thereof) of Pioneer Courthouse Square and Pioneer Courthouse across the divide of SW 6th.
Pur final note regards the ever-present issue of public art. The design team earlier had given the same explanation of the public art issue we'd heard at the other workshops. According to one of the design team, the current art along the mall is the "last vestiage" of artists saying: "I made this, buy it and put it out without regard to context."
"The word is 'plop,'" they said. "Pretty good 'plop,'" added another design team member.
Some final information now. Coming up on the meetings schedule is the next meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, to be followed by an open house, to include "general project information, an update on the local improvement district, an update on preliminary engineering 50% plans, and street tree/street lighting discussion."
Tomorrow at City Hall, during the afternoon Council session, the City will take up a set of items regarding the various mechanisms for funding the transit mall project.
Finally, yesterday's Oregonian offered a profile of the man who spearheaded the original transit mall project in the 1970s.