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January 2004 Summary"Public Participation Helping to Shape Public Places" "Public Participation Helping to Shape Public Places"by: Debra L. Smith, AIA, AICP High quality public places are an important part of the quality of life in healthy communities. Common places, such as parks, plazas, community buildings, and recreation trails offer places for the full cross-section of a community's citizens to gather to celebrate, play, relax, learn, and sometimes to mourn, such as was the case with 9/11. Des Moines and West Des Moines residents are fortunate to have two new facilities that add to the dynamic quality of the metro area's public realm: the improvements to Gray's Lake, including a quarter-mile pedestrian bridge, and the Raccoon River Nature Lodge. Gray's Lake, immediately adjacent to downtown, forms a key element of the entry into downtown from the airport and the southwest part of the city. It also offers wonderful site for a large, open, recreation place close to downtown. This reclaimed quarry was the site of a hotel that was severely damaged in the flood of '93. The hotel and surrounding site sat vacant and created an eyesore to the entrance to downtown for more than five years. The initial public participation began in the mid-1900's when the Parks Department developed a citizens' survey and held a series of meetings throughout the community to define the citizens' needs, interests, and priorities for the park system throughout the city. This information helped create a basic framework for park improvements city wide and from which the Gray's Lake amenities started to emerge. RDG Crose Gardner Shukert Landscape Architects and Planners were selected by the city in 1997 to build on this basic framework and create a master Plan for Gray's Lake. The public continued active participation in this phase of the project, including several community workshops, and it gained widespread public endorsement. A community committee was created to ensure representation of the city’s full cross-section of citizens, including the youth of Des Moines. Through the evolution of the master planning process, the Gray's Lake Foundation was created. The foundation devoted time towards fund-raising, securing in-kind contributions, and maintaining public awareness and support for the project. The foundation continues to represent the community's interest in ensuring Gray's Lake serves the needs and interest of the larger community and implementing the donors' vision for the Park. The City of Des Moines' Parks and Recreation Department selected HLKB Architecture to design a bridge for the south edge of the lake. The goal was a bridge that was functional, served as a strong visual component and enhanced the park and trail users' enjoyment. All of this and a modest budget add to the impressive end product. The result is a stunningly graceful bridge with a gentle arc up to the center and back down to the other shore as well as a sensuous curve away from the south shore to offer a series of changing views of the lake, the downtown skyline, and the experience of being over the water. A large part of the beauty and charm of the bridge is the skillful incorporation of details such as a minimal railing design to reduce any obstructions of views, lighting that illuminates the trail as well as punctuates the sweeping form, and use of dichroic colored glass inserts in the railing to add a rainbow of colors for the trail users to enjoy on the trail and on the water. These characteristics help the bridge change with the seasons, the time of day, and the amount of sunshine or cloud cover. The firm of RDG Crose Gardner Shukert addressed landscape design issues for the project. The firms worked together to ensure a smooth and pleasant transition from trail to bridge and back to trail again. The park has been successful beyond anyone's expectations, in large part due to the public participation that went into the effort and the resulting project program that defined the various amenities that were desirable and well used. The process also built a healthy sense of civic ownership. The Raccoon River Nature Lodge is another excellent example of a successful addition to public facilities. This project also incorporated public input and participation throughout development to ensure the community with a well-designed facility that optimizes visual appeal, character, and a sense of place with function, budget-conscious decisions, and flexibility. The lodge emerged from a complex program in which a diverse group of players had input, including community focus groups, user groups, and West Des Moines City staff. Issues for their input ranged from function and budget to public art and aesthetics. The Raccoon River Nature Lodge is located in the 700-acre Raccoon River Park being developed by the City of West Des Moines. The lodge takes advantage of views of the one-acre lake and orientation to nature trails, recreation trails, playing fields for soccer and softball, wetlands, and a beach. The popularity and sense of ownership for this building come in part from providing the community with a much needed and very desirable facility. However, it is also key to the project's success that the public participation created a sense of civic ownership and pride in the Raccoon River Lodge. Architects are skilled at leading public participation and to shape projects that reflect the best of what communities hope to become. This process is a win-win for all involved. The architects learn from the citizens about the needs priorities, and ideas for a range of uses; the public learns about the design process and are able to build civic ownership in a project they help shape, and the municipal government gains public awareness and appreciation for projects that will be valued and well-used. "Sound Bodies, Sound Minds, Fabulous Facilities: Campus Recreation Buildings for the Twenty-First Century"by: Ann Sobiech Munson, CSI CDT Published in Iowa Commerce December 2003/January 2004 New recreation and athletic facilities at today's academic institutions go well beyond the armories and field houses built during the last century. Through thoughtful design and collaborative processes, these spaces have become centers for athletic program excellence, focal points for student recruiting, and hubs of community involvement. Program Excellence Students now are "used to facilities that glisten and sparkle," notes Rick Hartzell, Athletic Director at the University of Northern Iowa. Facilities in higher education include dramatic rather than purely functional spaces with wellness centers, recreation areas, arenas, strength training, aquatic centers, and athletic training education. These buildings in many cases serve the institution and the surrounding community. Hartzell stresses the importance of top-notch facilities in developing the school's athletic programs. The goals of recruiting the best and brightest students, and of nurturing nationally competitive volleyball, basketball, and wrestling programs, require "facilities to match those aspirations." Central College in Pella, Iowa is no stranger to national championship athletic teams. The Ron Schipper Fitness Center, designed by RDG Bussard Dikis and opened in 1999, continues this tradition of athletic excellence in what Central College calls the "capstone" to their Kuyper Athletic Complex. Central's website notes that the 7,200 square-foot strength and conditioning center is among the largest at any Iowa college or university. Excellent students reinforce excellent programs, whether they are athletic, academic or other extracurricular activities. As UNI's Hartzell noted, high-quality facilities attract high-quality students. At Central, the open, two-story lobby of the Schipper Fitness Center is used to welcome student-athletes during large group recruiting events as a starting point for their campus visit. Summer athletic camps utilize the lobby for check-in. The lobby becomes a focus for recruiting activities. But because the Schipper Fitness Center is not just for student-athletes, it assists in the recruitment of all students by providing an additional amenity to attract prospective students. The large strength-training center is open to everyone. Images of the building now appear in a wide array of promotional materials for the college. A computer room was located adjoining the main lobby for general student use, and all students, along with faculty, college employees, and community sports club members, enjoy what Athletic Director Al Dorenkamp describes as a “user-friendly” facility. Community Involvement Students aren't the only beneficiaries of quality athletic facility design. These facilities respond to a wide variety of needs and have a positive impact the ripples well beyond the walls of the institution. Design of flexible multi-use facilities allows for greater shared use of the space by students and community, potentially contributing to the overall economic development of the area. At Central, Dorenkamp was involved in brainstorming, fundraising, design, and the construction phase of the building. He credits the architects with mobilizing everyone who would be affected by the facility, from coaches to the maintenance staff, and responding to their needs through the design process. Community involvement proved to be one of the strengths of the Lied Multipurpose Complex at Iowa School for the Deaf (ISD) in Council Bluffs. The project was funded by a combination of public and private funds in that Rich Connell, Director of Facilities at ISD, calls a "good marriage of public and private dollars." A group of 21 people, including representatives of parents, students, staff, and the community, worked with InVision Architecture to design a building that became "a win-win situation for everyone." The school uses the facility intensely for a certain number of hours a week, and then opens it up for community use. While the school has 135 students ranging in age from 4 to 18 years, Connell comments that the Lied Center, built to last a hundred years, "looks like it belongs on a college campus." From a fitness center addition at a small liberal arts college to a multipurpose complex at a primary and secondary school for hearing impaired students, these projects exemplify the new role recreation facilities play on academic campuses, strengthening student-centered programs as well as enhancing communities-at-large through well-designed buildings. |
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