Public Space
The return of Ellis Square, Savannah’s next great public space
Standing in Ellis Square yesterday evening, it was a little difficult to remember the ugly parking garage that occupied the square for decades. It was even harder to imagine more than 1,000 parking spaces below all the grass, trees and people having fun. And there were plenty of people having fun. A ribbon cutting, staple … Continue reading
Series of workshops to imagine MLK without the I-16 overpass
As reported by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign last week, The Savannah-Chatham County Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority are holding a three-day public workshop and charrette “to examine feasibility of removal of the I-16 exit ramps at Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd and Montgomery Street, and to address redevelopment along the … Continue reading
Project DeRenne concept provides a vision of corridor’s future
From coverage of last night’s Project DeRenne concept unveiling last night provided by WSAV, WTOC and the Savannah Morning News, you might get the idea that the mood in room was particularly contentious. I didn’t get that impression. And I was sitting a couple chairs away from a local business owner, who rose during the … Continue reading
Project DeRenne “preferred concept” to be unveiled Dec. 3
On Thursday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. the “preferred concept,” produced by the recent Project DeRenne charettes, will be unveiled in a former auto parts store at 131 W. DeRenne Ave. I’m interested to see what the folks from Kimley-Horne, working with city officials and citizens of all walks of life, have created. In a … Continue reading
Have lunch with the trees on Dec. 1
The Savannah Tree Foundation suggests supplementing your brown bag with a “leisurely stroll amongst a canopy of gold, red and yellow leaves” in Forsyth Park on Dec. 1. The Fall Color Walk through Forsyth’s Arboretum will be led by Bill Haws, the City of Savannah’s forest administrator. Participants will see different species and cultivars of … Continue reading
Focusing on a single goal will not mean success for Project DeRenne
A summary presentation for the recent Project DeRenne charrette is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at 131 W. DeRenne Ave. The location, a former NAPA auto parts store, is fitting. The nearby intersection of DeRenne Avenue and Montgomery Street is—as one of the charrette facilitators from Kimley-Horne called it—one of the most … Continue reading
Charrette particpants asked to describe DeRenne Avenue now and in the future
As cars and trucks droned by outside, citizens streamed into a former auto parts store at the corner of DeRenne Avenue and Montgomery Street. The purpose of the gathering tonight was the launch of a week-long design charrette focused on the DeRenne Avenue corridor, arguably one of the most important yet troubled streets in the … Continue reading
Changing a road that divides the city into an amenity that unites it
When a street is designed to maximize the speed of motor vehicles, the results are as predictable as they are ugly. Yet we may not comprehend how desolate the built environment becomes when it is given over exclusively to cars. Cars and trucks become a distraction, drawing our attention away from the ways that they … Continue reading
Protecting public places from poachers
Regular viewers of Georgia Public Television’s “Georgia Outdoors” program have likely noticed a graphic that appears near the end of each episode. It urges viewers to turn in poachers. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources describes a poacher as, “a thief who steals wildlife that belongs to you and all other Georgians.” Now let’s take … Continue reading
Solving parking, transportation problems requires “out-of-the-car thinking”
In his City Talk column in Sunday’s Savannah Morning News, Bill Dawers reports a common refrain from his readers: They’d come downtown more often if there was only more parking. I have news for these folks: There’s never going to be enough parking to satisfy them. Never. Unless we are willing to destroy the very thing … Continue reading
