The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
IMAGINED POTENTIAL
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> A Higinbotham amphitheater? What about a Lenox Avenue curbing design a city councilor prefers to the one proposed by the NYS DOT? Repurposing unused space to create a food truck circle off of Phelps Street?
These were just some of the ideas presented on Saturday at the Kallet Civic Center by SUNY ESF students who have teamed with the Oneida City Center Comittee improvement group to generate ideas and discuss the possibilities for the city downtown.
In the third and final meeting hosted by the ESF scholars and their instructor Maren King, students shared their designs for possible downtown enhancements that the city could implement in its seemingly endless fight to beautify and cleanup the downtown.
The nearly 30 community members who attended the meeting left impressed with concepts students were able to develop as part of the curriculum for the Community Design Studio course.
“These students have the ability to take ideas and visually create what could be,” said Greater Oneida Chamber of Commerce Director Royale Scuderi.
Scuderi, who attended all
three ESF-OC3 workshops, thought the entire process provided valuable experiences to all involved. For the students, the partnership provided them with a means of putting their learning to use in a reallife setting, while City of Oneida residents were able to have all of their ideas condensed and coalesced into a final presentation.
This notion was shared by Ward 1 Councilor Al Cohen. The councilor said he was impressed with the professional the students displayed at such a young age and felt that the ideas offered by the students could jump start some revitalization.
Cohen also favored the notion of installing and utilizing green spaces through cooperative efforts by city improvement groups and felt that business owners who attended the workshops were rejuvenated with an “initial burst of energy” and suspects several owners will “probably latch on to a few of the ideas” presented by students.
Student designs focused on the northern entry to the city and Rail- road Street, open spaces between Phelps and Madison Streets, the southern entry to the city, downtown portions of Main Street from Lenox Avenue to the Kallet, and Higinbotham Park.
Some design features were simple in nature, but effective in improving the aesthetics of the area. For example, several variations of welcoming signs were depicted for the corner of Main Street and Lenox Avenue across the street from Hotel Oneida. Because there is an abundance of traffic that flows along both Main Street and 365, students felt eye-catching signage beside saplings and possible park benches could be an alternate solution to the current pavement, a notion Scuderi agreed with.
“Wow, that looks somuch better,” she said of her initial reaction to seeing such a simplistic, yet pleasing design.
One of the other aspects of the presentation she appreciated were the improvements to Higinbotham Park. In addition to an amphitheater, plans included outdoor seating for the businesses that surround the city-namesake park.
“Higinbotham is a priority. The city owns it. Timing is good,” she said, citing the Hipster Cafe’s expansion ef- forts as an example of recent growth. “It could set the tone of what we want with the rest of downtown.”
Councilor of Ward 2Mike Bowe on the other hand, was taken with some of the plans presented for the portion of Lenox Avenue that runs between Main Street and Broad Street, where bumpouts provided an opportunity for trees or planters, but did not interfere with parking.
“I like this better than the NYS DOT design,” Bowe said, discussing his concern with the potential removal of several parking spaces along that route with designs as planned.
At the end of the presentation, ESF instructor Maren King was also sure to invite the community to a different type of final presentation by the Community Design Studio course where James Street will be temporarily transformed as a means of showing another potential use for the space. The event will take place on Thursday, May 4 at 11 a.m.
The ESF representatives and OC3 have agreed to share the student’s depictions with the Dispatch, and upon the receipt of those images, the Dispatch will create an online photo gallery.