Insights from Roth Marz Partnership

https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/downtown-partnership-looks-to-create-definitive-districts-in-the-city-with-gateways/1094589920This article was originally publised on GoErie.com on April 2nd, 2018.

--

The public weighed in on what proposed gateways to Erie should look like and what they should say about the city during a series of community meetings hosted by the Erie Downtown Partnership and Roth Marz Partnership architects Monday.

More than 100 people attended opening meetings at Ember + Forge and Voodoo Brewery.

“It’s fantastic,” Erie Downtown Partnership Executive Director John Buchna said of the turnout. “This has to be not just a project but a collaboration that encourages the way that residents envision the gateways because they will be seeing them and using them, too. The idea is to create vibrancy in our downtown. We want it to be a destination. And people are giving us great, solid recommendations that are creative but realistic.”

The proposed gateways — at Fourth, Eighth and 12th streets along State Street, at East Sixth and Holland streets, and at West Sixth and Sassafras streets — will be designed to help create a sense of place in each downtown neighborhood.

The gateways also may be more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

Whether those gateways include actual archways, benches or other elements has not been decided.

Also not decided is whether each of the gateways will be similar, unique or share a common theme.

“We’re asking what you would like to see,” Buchna told the public.

The gateways should celebrate the history of the city and its neighborhoods, past and present Erie industry, diversity, and Erie attractions, according to suggestions made at the Voodoo Brewery meeting.

“They should be a place where people take pictures of themselves and their families,” said retired Erie Art Museum Director John Vanco. “They should be opportunities for selfies, as we put it today.”

The gateways also should be interactive, said culinary artist and events coordinator Jason Brendel.

“People should be able to pull out their smartphones and activate them” for more information about Erie, he said.

The gateways should also include original art, said Dan Nick, of the Perry Square Alliance.

“We have so many talented artists in Erie,” he said.

Other artists also could be invited to portray the city, Vanco said.

“The iconic images that define Chicago and New York and other cities are by artists that aren’t necessarily from that city,” he said.

The gateways should celebrate Lake Erie and its tributaries, said business advocate Linda Stevenson.

“The water is what really separates Erie from other cities and makes us stand out,” she said.

A third gateways meeting was held Monday night at the Plymouth Tavern. Two more meetings will be held Tuesday, at 8:30 a.m. at Erie Insurance’s construction trailer at 227 E. Seventh St. and at 10 a.m. at Gannon University’s Nash Library.

Project suggestions are accepted on the Erie Downtown Partnership website at www.eriedowntown.com and on social media, Buchna said.

Gateways are expected to be designed by Roth Marz Partnership by June, Buchna said.