Re-Imagining Dayton`s Webster Station

R E - I M A G I N I N G D AY T O N ’ S
W E B S T E R S TAT I O N
A Placemaking Vision for
Building a Vibrant Neighborhood
Presented to the City of Dayton
by Paresi Design/Studio
November 2009
ENVISIONING PLACES
W E B S T E R S TAT I O N
E
very city has one. A neighborhood that long ago
ceased being what it once
was. Not exactly downtown, nor
a residential enclave, or even a
crusty loft district that still has
some industrial charm left from a
time long past.
Maybe it was once just worka-day rail yards, industry or longdemolished warehouse sheds, and
some structures that won’t exactly
make the honor role of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, but are nonetheless worthy
of restoration and re-use. Neighborhoods whose basic economic
function left long ago, but the land
is too well placed to just leave it
fallow. Places that need a re-envisioning to make them a part of the
city fabric again; That is Dayton’s
Webster Station.
There are many wonderful revitalized neighborhoods that were
once places in similar condition;
Short North and the Arena District
in Columbus, The Flats in Cleveland, Charlotte’s North Davidson,
Pittsburgh’s South Side, Denver’s
Golden Triangle and Austin’s Laguna Gloria are all good examples
of re-invented neighborhoods that
are now great destinations themselves.
These neighborhoods all share
one common trait. The powers
that be defined and crafted a vision for their futures, and then
relentlessly promoted, encouraged, pushed and prodded their
re-invention despite the odds, the
naysayers and the disbelievers.
These places took time, sweat and
great effort with some setbacks
along the way, but their vision was
strong enough to outlast poor economic circumstances, entrenched
negativity and captured a spark
of interest to ignite a renewal. In
many instances, these neighborhoods now define these cities beyond even the best hopes of their
early visionaries.
This is the beginning of that
chapter for Webster Station.
This placemaking study was
launched with two primary purposes.
-Define the neighborhoods
identity; specifically a ‘Webster Station’ brand.
-Develop the streetscape character: that will tie together new
and existing development,
and encourage development
of abandoned structures and
empty parcels of land.
We believe the following are
glimpses into a new future. The
framework that will allow a rebuilding of Webster Station as a
destination of choice.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
G AT E WAY S | B R A N D I N G
The foremost effort to give Webster Station a distinct identity
would be to create a marker at
its various entrances. We suggest
creating ‘threshold’ arrivals at its
periphery, in the form of large and
dynamic graphic elements at key
intersections that lead into the
neighborhood. In some instances,
it would be a freestanding, almost
sculptural element, and with the
CSX viaduct running along its
eastern edge, there is also the potential to pin-off such elements
to its superstructure as it crosses
Monument, East 1st and East 3rd
Streets leading into the neighborhood from South Keowee Street.
These freestanding graphic elements would also be embedded with several streetscape,
landscape and lighting features
that are also be part of the overall Webster Station urban design
character. This in effect ‘starts
the show’ to all who cross into the
neighborhood, while defining its
boundaries.
N
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A T I O
WEBSTER
S TAT I O N
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WEBSTER STATIO N
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
G AT E WAY S | B R A N D I N G
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
G AT E WAY S | B R A N D I N G
Webster Station can also be defined in several other ways. One
way to reinforce its character
is to develop an overall cohesive signage program that is created solely for the neighborhood.
This would involve developing
a graphic design theme for wayfinding sign elements, directional
signs, and should also be applied
to such public realm signs for traffic, parking and addresses.
In addition, we also suggest that
Webster Station branding could
also involve a skyline element,
such as a rooftop super-graphic on
a structural frame, evoking a oncecommon element of many city vistas. The Cannery loft building,
and the Mendelson’s loft buildings
are prime candidates for such an
opportunity.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
S H O R T-T E R M S T R AT E G I E S
New cross-site access street
from Webster in Tech Town
& Ballpark Village
Streetscapes improvements (typ)
- additional “on-street” parking
- new sidewalks
- extensive landscaping
- wayfinding/graphics and
new street furniture
Ballpark Village mixed-use
development
- new street grid to develop
buildable “blocks”
- neighborhood plaza & courtyards
as focal points
“In-fill” mixed-use developments
- structures built to street edges
- commercial, residential &
live/work development
Neighborhood street enhancements
- expand “bump-out” curb areas
& landscaping
- significant increase of on-street
parking
Keowee Street Gateways
- signature “arrival” gateways featuring
Webster Station identity graphic concept
Patterson Boulevard converted
as a 2-way street through
downtown
E. 3rd Street angle -in parking
- adds significant parking within
loft district
- creates safer pedestrian feel
Tech Town commercial
mixed-use development
New Webster/3rd Street neighborhood park
- fully landscaped open space
- performance space opportunities
- flexible activity options
Webster Street Corridor
- narrow street with islands, “bump outs”/water features
- land setback for future transit location
New Sears Street extension/connector
- connects Wayne Ave to E. 3rd St.
- easier access to Oregon District
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
S H O R T-T E R M S T R AT E G I E S
The streetscapes that presently
define the Webster Station neighborhood, in many cases, showcase
some wonderful historic character
buildings and urban vistas. However, decades of de-population
and the resulting gaps in the urban
fabric have left significant sections of the neighborhood vacant,
and their streetscapes with no
discernable character. They were
also, in many cases, service streets
of what was once a predominantly
industrial and commercial neighborhood. Therefore, unlike many
other sections of Dayton, they are
devoid of street trees, lighting and
have far too many curb cuts.
Continuing to re-define Webster
Station’s urban character also involves developing streetscape and
landscape design elements that
showcase a re-imagined neighborhood at an early stage in its revitalization. These design elements
are commonplace, and adding
them will not only enhance the revitalization efforts underway, but
will set the stage for future in-fill
development.
Among these features:
• Institute a significant street
tree program. In many cases, a
continual row of trees along sidewalks will sometimes be the most
vertical element of defining any
streetscape. They also add shade
to the pedestrian areas, soften the
vistas with buildings and can also
be varied to create seasonal color
or allow for accent lighting.
• Create a street furniture palette.
This includes such streetscape
character elements as light pole
standards, pedestrian-scale lights,
benches, parking meters, trash
cans, bike rack, signage poles,
bollards, and landscape pots.
• Develop a sidewalk/ hardscape
design standard unique to Webster Station. This would involve
groundscape elements such as
‘bump-out’ curb areas, paving
color and scoring patterns, brick
or stone edge strips along curbs,
planting beds, and intersection
and crosswalk patterns.
• Add significant and userfriendly street parking. This
would involve adding angle-in
parking on E. 3rd Street, and
much more parallel parking
opportunities throughout the
neighborhood.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
S H O R T-T E R M S T R AT E G I E S
All strong urban neighborhoods
have a number of public open
spaces to foster gatherings, events,
or even to take respite from the
day. In that spirit, and given the
vacated character of some tracts
of present-day Webster Station,
a series of strategically placed
parks, plazas and open spaces
will go a long way toward fostering
a sense of place, while providing
landscape, event space and giving
surrounding parcels the potential
for higher land values, which historically happen when overlooking well-tended open spaces.
One initial location for such a
neighborhood park would be the
triangular parcel at the northeast corner of Webster Street and
East 3rd Street. This one-time rail
yard would provide this far corner
of the district with a significant
formal open space while adding
value to the Second Street Market
development and parcels across
Webster Street and softening the
embankment of the CSX rail-bed.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
Creating the signature Webster
Street character could involve not
only adding streetscape and landscape enhancements, it would
also benefit from the development of two small ‘piazzas’. This
might include crafting a significant bump-out into the street corridor, creating a unique visual
axial focus along Webster. Similar
to Maryland Plaza in the Central
West End of Saint Louis, it could
feature a fountain or a sculpture
on a base, within the view corridor while giving the neighborhood
a point-of-reference and calming
traffic flow.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
For Webster and the smaller side
streets, additional streetscape enhancements could include such
items as an accent light canopy,
themed banners and small landscape islands close to the intersections to define entrances and
exits to certain blocks. Even the
dividing center-line of a street
could become a unique feature
with the addition of an embedded accent light down the middle
of the street, or adding slightly
raised elements or different patterns. Again, these items also add
subtle but unique character while
calming traffic.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
Some examples of streetscape
enhancements-both hardscape
and landscape.
Existing condition on
E. Monument Avenue
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
A more traditional, but still highly
effective way of creating a sense
of place are the development of
archways that bridge over a street.
Similar to Columbus’ Short North
High Street, this would involve
developing a sturdy, but easily
recognizable silhouette that could
carry graphics, lighting and landscaping.
Several of these could be constructed, in varying sizes to bridge
over differing street widths, and
become a highly recognizable feature of Webster Station.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
To facilitate a better flow of traffic
into and leaving Webster Station
from Wayne Avenue and the Oregon District, a long-standing idea
of extending Sears Street from
East 3rd through the Montgomery
Paper site should be pursued as
an early goal.
The street should wrap on a diagonal around the rear of the Cannery
Row lofts and align with the intersection of East 4th Street. This
placement would create a useable
depth of land against the CSX
rail-bed to allow for the eventual
development of a neighborhood
structured parking facility, and
even the addition of a potential
streetcar/trolley line that is being
explored that would eventually
connect several parts of the central city, including points within
Webster Station.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
Some examples and ideas for
enhancing the Webster Station
streetscape environment.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
Given the present adaptive re-use
developments already under-way,
creating streetscape enhancements to East 3rd Street would be
a most useful and highly recognizable first phase effort to the overall Webster Station re-imagining.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
STREETSCAPE & CORRIDORS
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
LO N G -T E R M V I S I O N
“Ponte Vecchio” mixed-use
development over Mad River
- part of rebuilt Webster St. bridge
- connects potential development at
Deeds Park site
“Ballpark Village”
mixed-use development
- largest downtown site for
“big footprint” development
opportunity
- potential to add significant
mixed-use scale to
Webster Station
Tech Town mixed-use
commercial development
Webster/Tech Town trolley station
Fifth Third Field trolley station
Mendelson Loft potential
mixed-use conversion
Re-configured Cooper Park &
new Webster Station Gateway
- water features as part of each
- signature pedestrian bridge
over Paterson Blvd.
- possible extension of Canal Walk
histortic site
- new gateway opportunity
from downtown
New in-fill neighborhood development
- commercial/mixed-use, residential,
live/work opportunities
Webster/Third trolley station
New neighborhood parking garage
- supports existing developments &
new mixed-use opportunities
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
LO N G -T E R M V I S I O N
New Webster Street BridgeDayton’s ‘Ponte Vecchio’
The long-term goal of connecting
Deed’s Park and potential development opportunities there with
Webster Station could involve a
unique, albeit ancient, urban design concept of re-building the
Webster Street Bridge.
Consider Florence built the ‘Ponte
Vecchio’ during its renaissance.
Dayton should build this one to
celebrate its coming renaissance.
Knowing the bridge itself will soon
require rebuilding and upgrading, this would involve essentially
deepening each side of the bridge
about 40-50 feet to accommodate
a platform large enough to accommodate vertical construction. The
sidewalks should be arcaded with
the building street wall forming
tight vistas through to each side.
The resulting development could
be unique and include residential,
commercial space, or institutional
uses. Connected to the riverside
trail and attractions, it could become a major feature to connect
dramatic riverfront development
opportunities on both sides of the
river.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
LO N G -T E R M V I S I O N
Cooper Park/ New Gateway
Park and Canal Walk
-The Gateways to downtown
and Webster Station.
Both Cooper Park and the historic
Canal Walk parks are wonderfully maintained, if sparsely used
open spaces. Given that the Dayton Metro Central Library is also
directly next to Cooper Park, and
that across Patterson Boulevard,
the present site of the Miami-Jacobs Career College and most of
that block could be redeveloped
into a dynamic gateway development for Webster Station, this
concept looks to tie together, at
its likeliest and most accessible
point, these two sides of central
city.
We envision a re-crafted Cooper
Park and new Webster Station
public garden and waterscape,
and connected by a signature
pedestrian bridge spanning an
upgraded North Patterson Boulevard. If well-executed it could
become one of the most important
public spaces in the city next to
Courthouse Square.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
LO N G -T E R M V I S I O N
All of the strategies we’ve showcased for Webster Station are
geared toward the upgrading of
the public realm, and giving the
neighborhood a more distinct flavor and character. The result of
these ideas, should they be actually be constructed in a similar
fashion, would be an incentive for
private investment to take advantage of such a great urban site development opportunity.
Considering that developments
such as Tech Town, or Ballpark
Village are terrific development
sites, they are more self-contained
and interact with Webster Station
only at the periphery. It will be
the interior blocks of the remaining neighborhood are where the
success of a revitalized Webster
Station will be most evident. Interwoven into existing uses and
businesses will be wonderful locations for new-to-market commercial space, mixed-use de-
velopments, live/work incubator
business locations and mediumdensity residential.
One has to look past our present
economic climate to know that
these times eventually change,
and that Dayton, like many smaller cities need to give existing and
new residents places for opportunity to thrive as the economy
recovers. Webster Station should
become the point of differentiation in the marketplace as an alternative to suburban business
parks, and out-of-the-way locales
that compete on price alone.
Well-designed projects, with distinct urban character, built to reinforce the cityscape and encourage pedestrian movement should
be the focus. These few examples
showcase some ideas of differing types of architecture and urban design that are highly possible in the new Webster Station
neighborhood. They are humanscaled and place windows toward
streetscapes. Where possible, they
also encourage street level commercial spaces for retail shops,
services and restaurants, cafes
and clubs. Residential opportunities include row homes, live/work
commercial loft space, and apartment style flats and condominiums. Parking structures, although
not a necessity right now, should
be encouraged as a market-driven
feature as a result of higher land
values, and leaving better located
sites for higher intensity development.
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185
LO N G -T E R M V I S I O N
ENVISIONING PLACES
Placemaking
Planning
Architectural Design
3403 S. Main St., Unit i
Santa Ana, Ca 92707
215.776.1185