Urban vitality is characterized not only by visiting pedestrians roaming the streets, but also by the people who occupy the buildings--living, working, and palying within, and without, their walls. It's the people who live downtown, the people who eat there, the people who shop explore there, the people who interact and socialize there, the people who persue their latest adventures there.
Imagine yourself having just moved into a new apartment/loft downtown [unless you already live downtown, then no imagining is required]. If you could have anything at your fingertips, within walking distance of your downtown living space, what would that be? What is downtown missing [you're not allowed to say parking]? What amenities would you want & need? Your dreams and desires could be as basic as a grocery store to something as far-fetched as urban bungee-jumping. Don't hold back; with this project, anything has potential to become reality.
4 comments:
A climbing wall.
And trees. Cool ones, not the same boring street trees planted everywhere in the US.
Nan
- A good convenience store, ideally somewhere you can wander in at 2am on a Thursday, buy some beer and a TV dinner, chat with the clerk, and head on home to watch infomercials before bed. None of that "shithole that's probably a front for drugs" business. A small grocery store would be even better.
- Good food ... a cheap Chinese place, a diner/"college food"-type place, some sort of fancy tavern, and a few upscale ethnic places. Preferably no chain places.
- A few permutations of coffeeshop/bookstore/music/video store, preferably with friendly clerks who are way cooler and more knowledgeable than you will ever be.
- Little green spaces ... Syracuse's street pattern is so irregular that using these to fill out an uneven lot shouldn't be a problem. Benches and plants are nice, but the best kind are the ones where you can lay down in the grass on a summer day.
And definitely trees ... ideally smallish (10ft.) and durable ones. Wide sidewalks, too.
-a sophisticated contemporary design, something you might find under construction in Toronto or Montreal. 12 stories would be great. Downtown needs a building that shows it has entered the 21st century. So many outsiders tell me they think Syracuse is stuck in the 1970s.
Waterfront. Green roofs.
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