Manhattan Downtown Redevelopment Plan subject of upcoming Kansas State Design Charrette

MANHATTAN, Kans.--Manhattan's proposed downtown redevelopment project will be the focus of students and faculty from Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning and Design participating in a collaborative urban design charrette.

Also participating will be professionals in the design fields. The charrette, to be held Thursday and Friday, October 14 and 15, is an intense brain-storming and design session where teams of students, faculty and design professionals will address some of the possible issues and challenges related to the redevelopment project and come up with solutions.

The charrette is sponsored by K-State's Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) with help from the Prairie Gateway Chapter of the ASLA, which includes all of Kansas and western Missouri. Also assisting will be professionals affiliated with the American Institute of Architects and the American Planning Association.

The goal of the charrette is to learn urban planning and design concepts through interdisciplinary student professional interaction in a service-learning project, said Jud Gladin, fifth-year student in landscape architecture from Oakley, Kansas. Gladin and John Payne, graduate student in landscape architecture, Manhattan, are lead organizers of the charrette for the K-State Student Chapter of the ASLA. Gladin and Payne are the Student Chapter's liaisons to the Prairie Gateway Chapter.

?EUR??,,????'??Teams will be assigned to one of eight general projects focused on the Poyntz Avenue District, the Tuttle Creek Shopping District, the Arts District, the pedestrian environment and parking alternatives, open space/parks/plazas, streetscape, riverfront development and reconsideration of the entire downtown master plan,?EUR??,,????'?? Gladin said.

?EUR??,,????'??Professors Susanne Siepl-Coates and Stephanie Rolley have combined their studio classes to work on preparatory background work for the charrette. This will provide the background material necessary for each team to come up with design approaches,?EUR??,,????'?? he said.

Rolley teaches a community planning and design studio for fifth-year landscape architecture students and graduate regional and community planning students, while Siepl-Coates teaches a fifth-year architecture studio class.

The charrette starts the evening of October 14, when participants will be divided into teams. Each team will be assigned a project and team members will discuss which direction they want the project to go, Gladin said. Friday will be design time and team presentations of their work at 3 p.m. at the Manhattan Town Center Mall.

The presentations will be open to the public and questions will be accepted. Critiques also will be given by the professional designers. ?EUR??,,????'??We hope to take all the charrette results from the teams, as well as the research and analysis done by the studios, and put it in a publication to give to the city's downtown redevelopment committee and the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce,?EUR??,,????'?? Gladin said.

Student participation is voluntary, but Gladin said students can list the experience on their resumes and include their charrette work in their portfolios. Also assisting with the charrette are Scott Peavler, fifth-year student in landscape architecture, Lindsborg, Kansas, and vice president of the Student Chapter; and Kim Olson, fifth-year student in landscape architecture, Neosho, Missouri, and Student Chapter president.

For more information, contact:

Stephanie Rolley, 785/532-2444, srolley@ksu.edu

Susanne Siepl-Coates, 785/532-1122, scoates@ksu.edu

Diane Potts, 785/532-1090, potts@ksu.edu

CAPD online @ www.arch.ksu.edu