Imagine a new urban destination directly off of the Fox River Trail, a downtown De Pere community space, that could house an evening reception, an art exhibit, a concert, or a farmer's market. Imagine a place where one can safely park their bike then walk with one’s family to De Pere restaurants and shops and later return to catch a view of a sunset overlooking the falls of the dam. All of us in our travels have been to cities that house great public spaces. Cities/Urban Environments/Buildings must be 'developed' with well designed sustainable public space. These spaces should be safe and comfortable, intelligently organized to occupy a variety of events, be easily accessible by foot, bike and automobile, and most importantly be prominently visible to suggest civic importance, symbolism and history.
All of these design attributes and more are suggested in Four 'Civic Plaza' proposals presented to the community of De Pere by De Pere architect Marc Brummel, in what could replace the demolished Claude Allouez Bridge east entrance approach at George and Broadway in East De Pere. Linking Broadway Street to the Fox River Trail, a Terraced Pedestrian Plaza Corridor, a Cascading Amphitheater, a Green Roof with parking beneath, and an Overlook Plaza with Reflecting Pool are just a few of the urban open space options that could occupy this important historic location.
Presently, thousands of bikers and pedestrians pass by this area every year on the Fox River Trail with no real ‘connection’ to Cities downtown. They pass by unable or unwilling to circumvent the grade change that separates the trail paralleling downtown. Each scheme not only accommodates all the needs of auto, pedestrian and bike access, each also contributes to the making of that vibrant civic space in the center of De Pere allowing a strong visual and tangible ‘connection’ between the river and downtown’s urban life.
Placing a private building here in the center of the city, at the axial west end of George Street, blocking the River would be a terrible urban design mistake, one similar to the placing of the mall building over Green Bay’s Washington Street. Inherent city design principles are many, but nowhere in metropolitan city centers does a privately owned building ever block a major arterial street terminating with a waterway - not Milwaukee, not Madison, not Green Bay. Sacrosanct spaces as these, typically left for the public, filled with fountains or civic statues, should remain open to promote mixed use infrastructure around them.
We have such an opportunity to create something that will last generations, something to pull people downtown to promote the area businesses, improve urban life and to connect to the history, beauty and progressive vitality of De Pere and its river. This really could be an incredible destination. One that you can and should help achieve.
Judge for yourself if this is something positive. Then, let your De Pere alderperson know how you feel before officials allow a developer place a building and attached 30 car parking lot within this important site. See what De Pere area businesses already believe would be a great asset for the City of De Pere. Our community requires you, right now, the public, to determine the proper ‘future fabric’ of our downtown.
