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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3-27-2017 CHC Correspondence - Item 1 (Schwartz)From: Kenneth Schwartz [ Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:29 PM To: Davidson, Doug <ddavidson@slocity.org> Cc: Gershow, Rebecca <RGershow@siocity.or > Subject: ARC meeting March 20, 2017 RECEIVED CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO MAR 2 7 2017 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Doug, Would you please distribute this message in the most expeditious manner to all members of the ARC as well as Rebecca Gershow and other staff members who participated in the Mission Plaza review during the March 20 ARC meeting. Thank you, Ken S. To: ARC Chairman Greg Winn and Commissioners Brian Roth, Amy Nemcik, Allen Root, Angela Soll, and Susan Ehaie From: Ken Schwartz, FAIA Re: ARC Review of proposed Mission Plaza re -design I want to express my appreciation for the extended amount of time you allowed me in order to discuss my views on the Mission Plaza redesign proposed during your March 20 meeting. Even so, I would like to add a few thoughts for your consideration as you proceed with both your personal thinking and further public hearing impute in the design review process of this very, very critical element located in the very heart of San Luis Obispo. As I mentioned, I have been involved both individually and as a public official in the development of Mission Plaza beginning shortly after two SLO Junior College Art students first proposed closing Monterey Street in front of the Mission in order to create what they called Mission Gardens. Unfortunately, the project you were asked to informally review on March 20 was a poorly defined area given the tremendously important work that needs to be accomplished to give the very heart of our community a new meaning and a new vitality. I urgently ask you to step away from these limited boundaries the City's consultant, RRM was required to work within. One of America's first community planners, Daniel Burnham, who gained fame from his immensely powerful design of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, said: "Make no little plans for they fail to stir the magic in men's blood." There's more to his statement, but this phrase underscores the point I wish to make with you individually and collectively. San Luis Obispo doesn't need another little plan, we need an inspirational plan that will re -stir the magic that flows in the veins of our citizens. You ARC members could be the agents who could and who should stir that magic. I implore you to explore this opportunity. Here's my suggestions: As I mentioned during the hearing, the components of a "Cultural Center" are beginning - at long last - to jell. They consist, at least at this moment of. the Mission itself, the Art Museum, the History Center, the Children's Museum, and a proposed new Little Theater as well as the Murray Adobe and the Hayes adobe and some dialogue has been underway. The proposed parking structure at Palm and Nipomo with a rooftop restaurant offering a 360 degree view of our surroundings would, be sensational. A "system" of design elements needs to be created to visually and physically tie these elements together so a visitor seeing one can readily understand how he/she can see/visit another and another. Normally, we would call this a 'landscape plan.' I would prefer to use another analogy. Instead of critiquing three dimensional objects (buildings) as the ARC normally does, I suggest your job here is to help create/critique a hall -like room running from Rose Alley to Nipomo Street. The floor of tis room is the ground and the ceiling is the sky and the walls are the facades of the buildings that face and enclose this room. The "floor" can be monolithic, just one material, one color, one pattern or it can be multiple materials: earth, stone, concrete, wood, grass, water (remember, San Luis Creek is part of the floor); as to a floor pattern, the possibilities are infinite provided there is a clear pattern in directing people from one center to another center. As to the ceiling which is the sky, you have no control. It could be clear and blue, cloudy and grey, sunny and bright, full of puffy white clouds, orange with the setting sun, pitch black at night or bright with moonlight .... and the sky can drop rain and get the room wet. And the walls. What a variety. For the most part, existing buildings or new ones to infill, fences and low walls and green hedges and waterfalls and trees of infinite variety and sizes which will act dynamically with the wind and weather - as you know, most architecture is static. This list is just suggestive of the infinite variety of components that can make up the visual and physical character of this connecting room. And not to be forgotten is the animal and bird life that will visit or live in this room adding excitement and movement. Squirrels and blue jays and robins and sparrows and doves and perhaps even a peacock or two. And how about man-made sculptures which can be static or dynamic. This room must be virtually wheel free. The only wheeled vehicles allowed to be wheel chairs and baby buggies ... and an occasional emergency vehicle. Let there be one place in our central city where motor vehicles and bicycles will not be permitted. (There is, however, a legal requirement that private vehicles servicing the Warden building shall continue to be allowed. Remember, the Warden bridge crossing the creek is a private bridge that allows pedestrian use.) I suspect you will be quick to say that we ARC commissioners are not designers; and that your job is to review and recommend approval of the designs of others. I say baloney! I suggest you all have a secret desire to design especially after having to critique so many poor designs. So set up a date you can meet in public, but limit discourse to ARC members (and staff?) only. Lay out some paper and with a spectrum of colored markers, start collectively designing your version of what this room which will tie future Cultural Center together should look like. (Do remember this room has an irregular shape called the Broad Street dogleg that must be integrated too.) I know at least a couple of you know how to push pencils. So set aside any timidly and try your hand. It should be fun. If you are not satisfied with your first results, try a second scheme, or even a third. Invite your friends to come and watch, and when finished, allow them to critique your ideas. Help stir our blood.