Brad Davis | The Republic A picnic scenario is set up at the Downtown Entrance Plaza, consisting of the POW/MIA/Law Enforcement Plaza north of State Road 46 and the Robert D. Garton Veterans Plaza to gather public input on design for the area on Monday, June 24, 2024.
The firm tasked with redesigning the downtown entrance into the city updated the Columbus Redevelopment Commission on Monday with details about the project before heading outside to get input from the public during a picnic.
Indianapolis and Pittsburgh-based Merritt Chase will redesign the 1.5-acres known at The Downtown Entrance Plaza, consisting of the POW/MIA/Law Enforcement Plaza north of State Road 46 and the Robert D. Garton Veterans Plaza south of the highway. The firm will also team up with Strand Associates for the project, who will provide civil and engineering services, co-founder Chris Merritt said.
In April, the redevelopment commission approved $400,000 towards construction and $50,000 towards design fees for the project being led by the Columbus Design Institute, an arm of the Landmark Columbus Foundation.
The space, created in 2000 by world-renowned landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburg and Associates, is in need of upgrades after becoming overgrown and underutilized, according to city officials.
Co-founder Nina Chase said their firm consists of landscape architects by training, but some also do urban design with “a focus on the public realm.”
“We don’t design buildings, but we’re always thinking about how buildings interface with the public spaces that we all get to operate in as the general public —the sidewalks, the streets, parks, et cetera.”
The typologies of landscapes they work on most frequently, Chase said, include gardens, trails, streets, plazas, parks and waterfronts. For all those types of projects they “layer on a number of different elements” relating to an areas history, culture, identity and ecology.
Rather than a typical design process starting with planning and ending with the build, their firm operates a little differently, according to Chase.
“Our proposal and the way that we like to think about how design can really impact at full processes, is expanding the stages at which we are involved. We like to start with engagement and use a design process not dissimilar to the design process that we use for designing the physical space, to think about the design of the actual engagement itself,” Chase said.
The firm has used an extensive engagement process in the past, seeking feedback through QR codes placed around a particular city, on city buses and through a more traditional meet-and-greet setting.
On Jackson Street, between First and Second streets, Merritt Chase placed lawn chairs in Cummins red, picnic blankets and put up large boards, also in red, for the public to scribble their thoughts on.
One asked “What is your vision for the downtown entrance plaza?” Another: “How can we create a better site for public memorials?” A third: “What do you like about the space today?”
In response to the latter, someone wrote about being able to see the bridge and county courthouse. Many wrote about preserving a large tree in the area.
“The tree screams ‘Hang a swing!’”
Others asked that Second Street be made easier to cross and more shade be added.
Those interested in providing their ideas may do so at columbusdowntownentranceplaza.com.
Four goals outlined during Merritt Chase’s presentation to the commission include:
- Transform the space to be more desirable
- Collaborate with local partners and adjacent projects
- Improve key design features and connectivity
- Ensure the project’s integrity and universal accessibility
“We kind of zoom out and think about all of downtown and how this a key gateway,” Merritt told the commission. “It’s a connector on the trail and to other redevelopment efforts you have ongoing, and trying to think about parks generally and what this space can offer in context to other public spaces.”
Merritt Chase expects to complete design and construction documents by the end of the year and target the spring of 2025 as the beginning of construction.
“That will ultimately depend on the kind of feedback and design we ultimately land on,” Merritt said.
An important component of the project, redevelopment officials have said, is how the space would be integrated with current and future developments in the area, like the the recently constructed 1821 Bicentennial Trail connecting to the plaza from the south and the Riverfront Project.
One example of past work Merritt Chase discussed at length, with a lot of parallels to the current project in Columbus, is the South Downtown Indianapolis Public Realm Vision Plan the firm put together for the city of Indianapolis and its Department of Metropolitan Development.
“We were hired to look at how the public space of downtown Indianapolis could connect all of these development projects that were happening,” Chase said.
Chase said the plan helped “tee up a number of projects” for the firm including a temporary activation on Monument Circle that closed the area to traffic and transformed it to a green space for the public.
“In addition to connecting a lot of the ongoing development, the mayor’s (Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett) administration was looking at their downtown post-pandemic, which I’m sure you’re dealing with here,” Merritt said. “… And so they’re interested in investment in streets and public spaces as places where families and people want to be and gather and ultimately live.”
“That’s also how we view projects like the entrance plaza here, is creating one of those spaces where you want to be locally, but it’s also a destination that can draw people in.”
