DESIRED OUTCOMES
EXPLAINED
CATALYST
FOR CHANGE
Redevelopment strategy aims to breathe new life
into underutilized downtown riverfront area
Downtown Commercial Core
By Jennifer Schmidt
F
But, along with these good intentions, therein lay a problem. While
an invaluable asset, that same Rock River also divided the downtown
area into two distinct halves.
Ayres Associates is working to help
answer that question as well.
“We’ve traditionally developed along the river in a way that makes
that a divider rather than a unifying component,” said Duane Cherek,
planning services manager for the City of Janesville. “This plan intends
to connect both sides in a different way by taking advantage of the
river.”
The plan Cherek refers to is the Rock Renaissance Area
Redevelopment and Implementation Strategy (ARISE), which Ayres
Associates – through its recent acquisition of SAA Design Group –
drafted for the City of Janesville. The strategy looks at riverfront land
in the core of the City, which extends across a 240-acre area bordering
the Rock River.
“What it really aims to do is provide the City of Janesville with
a playbook for redevelopment,” Cherek explained. “Essentially,
it gives us a fairly extensive set of information that looks at
environmental conditions, market conditions, and physical land
use recommendations to redevelop property along the riverfront
downtown.”
City parking lot on the riverfront
Removal of the structure will result in
“a dramatic change in the downtown,”
he said, adding that demolition is
slated for late 2016.
“When that occurs, it’s going to
expose a portion of the river that
the community hasn’t seen for over
50 years,” he said. “And then the
question becomes ‘What do we want
to do along the river’s edge?’ ”
or decades, the City of Janesville, Wisconsin, desired to embrace
the natural asset flowing through it, emphasizing the importance
of the Rock River and riverfront acquisition and protecting the
lands along that corridor.
Commercial river buildings turn
their backs to the river
The ARISE project – all possible as part
of a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Brownfields Area-Wide
Planning grant – focuses on several
near-term action steps, the first being
removal of a dated and failing parking
deck that extends across the river. The
single-story concrete structure was
constructed in the mid-1960s, was
never intended to serve as a bridge
or a street, and “is at the end of its
useful life,” according to Cherek.
As part of the project, the planners
identified six targeted areas known
as “catalyst sites” driving the
redevelopment. Recommendations
associated with the first catalyst site
– the Town Square area where the
parking deck is located – include a
pedestrian bridge, river walks with
public access to the river, scenic
overlooks, great lawn/green space
area, bridge improvements, sidewalk
widening, and more. As part of a
separate project, Ayres has already
studied the proposed conversion of
several downtown streets from oneway to two-way traffic operation – the
goal being to encourage downtown
development vitality.
Landscape architect Bruce Morrow of
Ayres (then SAA) managed the ARISE
Parking Deck over the Rock River
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Rock Renaissance Area and catalyst sites
TRENDS
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