Tuesday, April 24, 2007

SOUTH FIRST MASTER PLANNING PROJECT:
Spencer
Eray
Heather
Kirti
Kyle

Our goals of the S. First Master Plan are to densify the street and provide additional housing without dramatically changing the scale and character of the street. To accomplish this we broke the street up into three Zones:

1. Zone 1 is the downtown zone; the buildings are large in scale and the speed of transportation is highest.

2. Zone 2 is the threshold or buffer between the fast-paced large-scale downtown region and the slower-paced lifestyle of old S. First. The buildings currently include some medium scale apartment and office complexes. We are allowing for greater development in this region to take place, since it is already moving toward the larger scale of downtown.

3. Zone 3 is the region we intend to preserve in terms of scale and character. We intend to preserve the charm and community spirit already in place in this region of S. First Street. This preservation strip begins just north of Gibson street and extends south to Live Oak. We focused most of our attention on this preservation strip, and implemented the following two schemes: a Front Yard scheme and a Back Yard scheme.

a. The Front Yard scheme includes moving all of the parking lots to the rear of the existing buildings, creating building additions to both the front, back, and sides of existing buildings to create a temporally dynamic street front, and improving the side walk to swell and contract to engage the buildings along the street and create a meandering experiential walk for the pedestrian along S. First Street.

b. The Back Yard scheme complements the Front Yard scheme by creating the same type of continuous greenbelt along the creek that contracts and swells to engage the rear programs of the adjacent buildings. Some buildings, like Jovita's, have the opportunity to create static pools of gathering and activity for pedestrians along the greenbelt.

Additionally, our master plan includes three new housing developments that help to establish the scale and character of the tree zones and further the community spirit of S. First Street.

1. First, Lower Bouldin Creek Community: a trailer park at Live Oak which marks the entrance to the Back Yard greenbelt and provides housing for single artists.

2. Second, Upper Bouldin Creek Community: a community of duplexes along the creek at Gibson Street which both engages the existing greenbelt providing dense housing in a very natural environment and marks the main entrance both to Zone 3 and to the Back Yard greenbelt. The Upper Bouldin Creek Community is located directly across S. First from the main community center that we intend to build, which includes basketball court, community garden, small grocery store like Wheatsville Coop, and outdoor space for weekly or monthly Farmer's Market days. The community center can be accessed directly from the Upper Community via the greenbelt which runs along the creek under the street; therefore, the duplexes in the Upper Community cater to families with children who have plenty of outdoor space to explore and access to community activities without crossing the busy street. Likewise, the community center area is easily accessible for the other two communities via a short walk along the greenbelt.

3. Finally, Bouldin Creek Cliff Apartments: a series of apartment complexes located along the greenbelt further north which embraces the larger scale of buildings in that Zone 2.


The following diagrams illustrate all of our master plan ideas.

1. EXISTING BUILDINGS ALONG S. FIRST STREET


2. FRONT YARD SCHEME: BUILDING ADDITIONS; PARKING LOTS MOVED TO BACK


3. BACK YARD SCHEME: OUR THREE COMMUNITIES PLUS THE GREENBELT WHICH CONNECTS THEM; THE MEANDERING SIDEWALK OF THE FRONT YARD SCHEME


4. TREES PLANTED ALONG ZONE 3 TO SLOW DOWN DRIVERS; DENSE TREES ALONG THE GREENBELT


5. COMPLETE MASTER PLAN DIAGRAM WITH TEXT SHOWING THE 3 ZONES, THE FRONT YARD AND BACK YARD PATHS, THE THREE COMMUNITIES, THE BUILDING ADDITIONS AND PARKING LOTS, AND TREES