U. of Michigan Design Students Share Ambitions for Downtown Youngstown

Reprinted with permission from The Business Journal

U. of Michigan Design Students Share Ambitions for Downtown Youngstown

Ross Davidson and Heather Smirl toured downtown.

August 28, 2007

By Dennis LaRue

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – They came. They saw. They returned. But only after writing “Center City Youngstown: A Fresh Perspective.”

After touring the downtown 2½ days in late July and listening to business, civic and cultural leaders, 15 graduate students in the University of Michigan’s college of architecture and urban planning presented their visions Monday evening of what downtown Youngstown could be.

The possibilities the students presented are just that, possibilities intended to continue discussions of the downtown’s transformation into a more desirable place to reside, work and shop. Indeed, some of their scenarios conflict.

The students did not put a price tag on their visions or take into account changes that might have to be effected in the zoning ordinances. They were charged with being “a fresh set of eyes,” as Reid Dulberger reminded the audience, and the 2½ days allotted of necessity meant a “quick take.”

Dulberger is acting president of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., which contributed $4,000 to the group’s travel and lodging here, and executive vice president of the Regional Chamber that administers the CIC under contract.

The overriding themes, and there was agreement on the broad brush strokes, are greater integration of the downtown and the campus of Youngstown State University, making the downtown a destination point for residents of the Mahoning Valley, making the downtown “more walkable,” and reconfiguring the parking lots.

“Some ideas [presented last night] can be implemented tomorrow,” said Kit Krankel-McCullough of Michigan’s Urban Design Studio. “Others are more theoretical.”

Youngstown is like many other older downtowns in the East and Midwest that have seen their businesses and many professional offices leave for the suburbs, she said. Her students were “impressed with the core of the downtown. The character of the buildings impressed them. Youngstown is not Just Anywhere, U.S.A.”

The students worked these buildings into their plans, hoping to preserve as much of their structures as possible, even though little can be recovered from some. For the Kress Building and State Theatre, possibly only their facades could be saved, Kelly Koss allowed.

Koss, a master’s candidate in urban design and urban planning, was the leader of the team that studied “activity spaces” and suggested that the Children’s Museum move from its present quarters at East Boardman and South Walnut streets to the Kress Building. Other students, also aware the Children’s Museum has outgrown its space, proposed other sites.

The downtown needs more green space, the students said, and suggested more mini-parks be built, not more parking lots when dilapidated structures are razed and no immediate plans are in place to rebuild on the sites. There was a consensus the downtown has ample parking although it may not be as close to some buildings as visitors would like.

And, Krankel-McCullough noted, the students think a “moratorium on surface parking lots” has considerable merit.

Koss and Ross Davidson, another master’s candidate in urban design and urban planning, suggested converting the Paramount Theatre into a multi-plex theater at night – “more than a movie theater,” as Davidson put it – and a cultural arts center for children during the day. Koss called it an “arts incubator” that would supplement what children are taught in school. And it would have the added advantage of being open year-round.

Youngstown sits in the center of a passenger rail corridor proposed by the Ohio Rail Development Commission, Davidson noted, and so he would move the terminal of the Western Reserve Transit Authority in the West End closer to the Mahoning River so it would abut the rail line. “Move it across the river to the center of the rail line,” he advised.

The downtown is compact and easily walked, said Heather Smirl, another master’s candidate. But it must be made more inviting place to walk so the distances don’t seem so great. She would have people drive to parking lots where they would leave their cars and walk for the scenery and exercise as do many suburbanites in Mill Creek Park.

She would also have much of the parking concentrated in the hillside between Commerce and Wood streets where it would not be as visible and have people walk either south downtown or north to the YSU campus. She would convert many of the surface lots that dot the downtown into mini-parks.

As far as extending North Hazel and North Phelps streets, she’s in favor, provided they are pedestrian walkways closed to vehicular traffic. She would also extend Elm Street such that the extension becomes a pedestrian corridor.

And throughout the downtown she would have “media beacons,” signs directing visitors to various services as well as informing walking or driving through the downtown of events scheduled at Chevrolet Centre.

Although charged with confining their efforts to the area bounded by West Federal Street, Wick, Rayen and Fifth avenues, they looked at the five gateways to the downtown including the Market Street Bridge and the former Wean United factory along the Mahoning River just west of the bridge. They also looked at the Mahoning Avenue/Mahoning Avenue bridge.

They see the downtown filled with residents who are students, empty nesters and childless young professionals and endorse plans to convert the Erie Terminal, Wick, Realty and Stambaugh buildings into apartments and condominiums.

City Center Youngstown remains a work in progress, Dulberger said, and the final report will be available on DVD for further discussion.