Crescent Extension to Monroe (Pedestrian)

[Allison Slater]

I'm surprised I hadn't seen this here before. Our wish of connecting and breaking down the wall on the Calder plaza is (partially) being brought to light. Crescent will receive a pedestrian extension west of Ionia to Ottawa in addition to some circular traffic-slowers(?) at Division and at Ionia. In the last phase, a section of the southern calder plaza will be paved in brick leading from west to east with a large stairway and ramp on the Monroe side penetrating straight through the wall and ending on the street.

Sire plans can be seen in the Grand Action office's windows in the Waters Building.

[RegalTDP]

...circular traffic-slowers(?) at Division and Ionia...

Just curious: Are you talking about pedestrian islands in the middle, or some kind of signage, or.... What exactly?

[joeDowntown]

Nice. I'd love to see the east side of Monroe put to use. Maybe some "liner" buildings to go along with the stairway (always thought it'd be cool to have two-three story buildings cover the rock wall. Rooftop decks, etc)?

Anyone have the plans (online), or do I have to go take a picture of the plans inside the window?

Joe

[GRDadof3]

Nice. I'd love to see the east side of Monroe put to use. Maybe some "liner" buildings to go along with the stairway (always thought it'd be cool to have two-three story buildings cover the rock wall. Rooftop decks, etc)?

Anyone have the plans (online), or do I have to go take a picture of the plans inside the window?

Joe

I haven't seen anything, but I may have missed them. The Crescent Street Connector has come and gone a few times on the agendas since last year I believe, but no images. I'll have to walk the window and check it out.

Again, what else should we be clamoring for in downtown??

[Allison Slater]

Just curious: Are you talking about pedestrian islands in the middle, or some kind of signage, or.... What exactly?

Not pedestrian islands, but, I have no idea what they are.

I couldn't find any pictures on the Grand Action site so for now at least, you'll have to visit their window. The completed renovation of the Crescent Park was "Phase 1."

[GRDadof3]

I went by the Grand Action window. It's looks pretty nice. Basically a brick paved pedestrian thoroughfare that runs alongside the Northern end of the county building, with huge stairs sweeping down to the Monroe Ave sidewalk (right by where the BRT stop will be apparently). And then it runs across Ottawa, and between the Frey Bldg and the other building and meets up with Crescent.

Ambitious "imagineering" going on at the corner of Division and Crescent, showing a completely tree-filled intersection with buildings on each corner. Hard to imagine when VAI owns two of the corners, and one is a parking lot. And the other two corners are also parking lots (OAK Construction and the dumb bar that never stays open for more than a few years).

[joeDowntown]

Here's a couple of "through the window" shots:

"Phase II":

"Phase III":

Joe

[Allison Slater]

Speed tables.. that's what I was thinking of. Never heard of these before.

As for the Phase 3, I think it's a great way to open connectivity, 'beautify' the plaza, without damaging the artistic integrity of the plaza that some preservationists and photographers had seemed concerned about in discussions about the idea years ago in another thread. (And, one could argue, goes a step further for 'historic preservation' by recreating the even older thoroughfare through here.)

[mpchicago]

Looks interesting. I recall a plan from the 1920's that showed a Blvd from Crescent Park ending at the river. Speaking of these projects, what ever happened to the Lyon Square project? It was on the DDA agenda a number of times last year, with work to begin spring/summer 2011. Now I haven't seen or heard anything about it in a while.