43
Exhibit explores ways to better use public space in Youngstown
Display will continue through July 22
YOUNGSTOWN
An exhibit exploring improved ways to use public space in Youngstown will open at 6 p.m. Friday at Youngstown State University’s John J. McDonough Museum of Art.
The event, called Changing Views | Designing Youngstown’s Future, will feature planning and design work done in the past year by YSU economic-development specialists and students from three other universities.
“The goal is to build consensus with stakeholders and turn these ideas into tangible results,” said Dominic C. Marchionda, city-university planner with YSU’s Regional Economic Development Initiative [REDI]. “We want to get a lot of input and opinions from residents and give people a voice.”
The exhibit will be on display at the McDonough Museum, 525 Wick Ave., from Friday to July 22. The open house is from 6 to 8 p.m. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Among the displays is REDI’s work with students and faculty from Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, and Kent’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
In December, 150 displays from KSU students were shown at Trinity United Methodist Church on Front Street. The proposals included tying YSU and downtown more closely together, an art and food market downtown, and cleaning up and developing the area along the Mahoning River.
Those displays are part of this exhibit as well as ideas from students who attend Kent, Lawrence Technological University in Detroit and Ball State University in Indianapolis. That work focused on urban design strategies to connect riverfront property to the YSU campus along Hazel and Phelps streets.
Another display focuses on landscape designs for the city’s corridors, and one concentrates on improving areas along Wick, Phelps, Hazel and Fifth avenues.
“The students came up with a broad range of ideas,” said Brett Tippey, program coordinator for architectural studies and an assistant professor of architecture at Kent. “Some designed brand-new buildings, and others came up with adapted reuses of existing buildings.”
As for how to come up with the money for the proposals, Tippey said the students don’t take that into consideration.
“It’s a brainstorming session,” he said of the ideas. “The intent is to spark conversation and start the community thinking about what can be done in Youngstown.”
Also at the museum will be two projects from Warren. One looks to develop uses for empty lots in Warren’s Garden District and the other is design strategies for the city’s Robins Theatre and the Garden District.