Sunday, May 19, 2019

Let’s Design Eugene Town Square


The City of Eugene invites everyone to attend the first of three planned community design events for the Eugene Town Square Project. This first “Imagination Lab” will take place this coming Wednesday, May 22, at Whirled Pies in downtown Eugene.

The goal of the project is to develop design concepts for a permanent, all-season home for the Farmers Market, a new City Hall, and improvements to the Park Blocks, including a vibrant Eugene Saturday Market. As I wrote last September, the Town Square concept is an organic outcome of a multiplicity of factors, not the least of which was a serendipitous share of dumb luck. Rather than separately regarding a new City Hall, a covered Farmers’ Market, and the Parks Blocks, the project team hired by the City (led by Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architecture and Planning) will be able to approach the three elements with coherence and a compelling vision in mind. If done right, Eugene Town Square will be something so intertwined and whole that it is difficult to imagine how it can be considered or function well as discrete elements. A combined project magnifies the prospect of a generative design process that emphasizes their interrelatedness and ensures every building increment will form a greater whole, which is both larger and more significant than itself.

If everyone’s hopes are fulfilled, Eugene Town Square will one day be a welcoming, safe, and festive place. It will be the City’s front porch and civic center, a beautiful spot to gather, play, and celebrate our community.

I’ll be at Wednesday’s Imagination Lab event and hope to see all of you there too. This is an opportunity to “co-create” a new public space, one that will impact the future of downtown for generations to come.

What:  Eugene Town Square Imagination Lab Public Event #1. Activities for all ages. Refreshments provided.

When:  May 22, 2019. Drop in any time between 5:00-9:00 PM. Presentations at 5:30 and 7:00.

Where:  Whirled Pies, 199 W. 8th Avenue, Eugene, OR  97401

Cost:  Free


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