A few river concepts - The Piers

[AVERAGE JOE]

After discussing the flooded west bank scenario, I got to thinking about what could be done over there. You know, offer a solution or alternative. So here goes... you might want to grab a beverage and get comfortable, this will be a long post.

One of the areas of the west bank that hasn't gotten enough attention in my mind is the city maintenance yards on the southeast corner of 23rd and Jackson. It's an enormous land area, already owned by the city, that could play a major factor in riverfront redevelopment.



The area I'm talking about is in red above. I've only highlighted in red the area covered with paving. The purple area represents grassy area between the city yards and the river, which would certainly be included into any redevelopment plans. Didn't know the exact boundaries, so I distinguished by asphalt/grass as shown. I've also highlighted the River West Festival Park in orange at the top. So here's part 1 of my "plan".

Part 1 -- Move the Festival Park to the site of the city maintenance yard.

Moving the festival grounds would accomplish several things. First, it would be a more accessible location, right off the 21st Street Bridge. Also, the SE corner of the grounds would only be about 3 blocks north of the Pedestrian Bridge. Second, the new festival park would be a much larger space. The graphic below shows the footprint of the current festival park superimposed in white over the new site:



You can see just how much bigger the maintenance yard site is. We could really expand the festival grounds into something great. Maybe use the slope of the land to create a massive ampitheater in the SE corner of the site with flat land for tents and rides on top of the hill (toward the red). Link it all by pedestrian paths to the 21st Street Bridge and the Pedestrian Bridge. The far west end of the site (between Jackson and the tracks) could be parking (which is what a lot of it is now).

Want a detailed site plan? Come up with your own. []

We'd have to find a new spot for the city maintenance yards. My gut tells me that voters would agree to fund that move in order to free up such a huge patch of riverfront real estate. And the Public Works folks would get new facilities out of the deal. I've vastly oversimplified things, but I think the concept at least makes some sense.

Now that we've moved the festival park, what do we do with the old park? Well, assuming we still acquire the Westport and concrete plant properties, we now have a massive strip of riverfront land to develop into... well, whatever we want. So on to Part 2.

A while back I pitched the idea of building a pier out over the river from the west bank. So just for grins, I did some Google Maps magic and snagged, in scale, the Santa Monica Pier. I clipped it out in Photoshop (badly), rotated it 180 degrees (faces downtown Tulsa, not the Pacific Ocean), and plopped it down in my development area. The whole doggone Santa Monica Pier, amusement park and all.



Okay, I couldn't decide where to locate it. So I put it in there 3 times. You tell me where to put it (he he... just kidding). The north pier would look out over what I think is a least tern nesting island. The middle pier is where the old ampitheater was located (heck, we could keep the darn thing. why not?). The south pier is aligned with the intersection of Denver and Riverside. Notice how all three would allow you to wave at people on the east bank of the river very easily? []

So I thought I was done and I'd let you guys pick the location for the pier, but then I thought -- why not three piers? For what the Channels would cost, we could probably build 300. Therefore,

Part 2 -- Build not one, but three piers.

I started imagining what the piers would have on them and came up with -- one with bars and nightlife, one with more family-oriented stuff, one with shops and retail. Maybe the family pier does have a little amusement park.

And in between those three piers, picture narrow, cobblestone streets running parallel to the piers down toward the river, lined on both sides with mid-rise buildings of lofts, shops and restaurants. As you drive or walk down Jackson, you'd have these intermittent corridors with views of the river and the skyline. Maybe create a little central green space or plaza in there, too.

Okay, I think I've drawn this out (very badly). Here goes:



The yellow meandering line is the pedestrian trail. Purple at the top is high density housing facing downtown. The two thick white lines are the cobblestone streets. The orange areas are the mid-rise buildings with lofts, shops, etc. The orange areas are double sided - one side faces the pier, the other faces the street. Maybe have service alleys running down the middle of the orange areas.

The green area is a green space at the foot of one of the piers (maybe the family-themed pier). The gray area at the bottom right is structured parking -- closest to arterial road, furthest away from high density residential, can be shared with our new festival grounds on the other side of 23rd Street.

So we'd end up with a completely revitalized riverfront community on the west bank, a unique set of three piers (for a midwestern city), a huge new festival park, and pedstrian linkages throughout. I'd rely on private developers to build the high-rises and mid-rises, but publicly build the piers (ground lease sites for shops, bars, and restaurants), the cobblestone streets, festival grounds and structured parking. We'd probably spend way less than half of what the Channels would cost.

ps - if you read that entire post, you're almost as deranged as I am... []