Architects: Students created
more parks, walkable streets
Continued from page 1
The students presented their ideas
to both city and University archi
tects Thursday in the Tykeson Room
of the Eugene Public Library.
The studio class was given the
task of redeveloping Eugene’s
downtown, based on the city’s
plans for the area. Assistant profes
sor Mark Gillem got the idea this
summer after noticing the number
of current and proposed building
projects in Eugene, such as the
new University arena and a
new hospital.
Gillem was concerned that the
city was looking at the projects indi
vidually without developing an
integrated plan.
“They have a lot of good words
and a good policy, but not an actual
plan,” Gillem said.
The studio was a mix of architec
ture and landscape architecture stu
dents, which is not normally done.
The city was split into six districts,
and groups of two students took to
redesigning the areas.
The class spent the first half of the
term researching the city of Eugene
and other cities. The class even spent
a day in Portland looking at different
designs in the city. Students enjoyed
the hands-on work.
“This has kind of a real aspect to it,”
Senior Aaron Hanley said. “Other
studios are more conceptual. ”
The students focused on creating
more parks downtown, walkable
streets and connecting downtown
both to the river and the University.
They agreed that the arena would
work better downtown near the in
tersection of Broadway and Mill
Street rather than on the Williams’
Bakery site near campus. The place
ment, an estimated seven-minute
walk from campus, would help
bring students into the downtown
shopping areas.
“Students can walk to the stadi
um and then walk downtown,”
Hanley said.
They also expanded 11th Avenue,
adding a walkable median with
two-way traffic. At East 11th Avenue
between Charnelton and Olive
streets, there would be a park
surrounded by a roundabout.
The city is considering redoing
the city hall building, so the studio
took that into account and added
the project to its slate. They demol
ished the existing city hall and re
built it in the same spot, but in half
the space by making the building
five stories tall.
“A taller, half block city hall
would allow for more mixed-use de
velopment downtown,” said Martha
Bohm, a member of the group that
redesigned the city center area.
The students presented their
ideas to faculty and city employees,
many of whom assisted the stu
dents during the midterm review of
the projects. The advisers offered
ideas, suggestions and sometimes
harsh criticism.
During a presentation of the civic
center and riverfront groups, Land
scape Architecture professor Ron
Lovinger and City of Eugene Project
Manager Mike Penwell were disap
pointed that the students didn’t ex
tend a series of parks across from
downtown to the Willamette River.
“Here you have this fabulous op
portunity to set the stage for the
court house,” Lovinger said, “and
you missed it.”
Penwell was somewhat tougher.
“It made me realize how much
I love Eugene,” Penwell told the
students, “because you’ve
destroyed Eugene.”
Both Lovinger and Penwell recog
nized the presentations as great first
steps in the debate over the
redevelopment of Eugene.
“There are lots of wonderful
ideas,” Lovinger said. “If only this
studio could just go for another
few weeks.”
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy
attended the presentations, touring
each district’s presentation
with Gillem.
“This is very timely and
fun to look at,” Piercy said. “I hope
it will be fodder for some real
different thinking.”
The students also created a zon
ing plan for downtown based on a
concept called form-based plan
ning. Instead of looking at the use
of a building, such as residential or
commercial, they zoned the design
of the buildings, taking into account
the heights, entry points and
window locations.
“Today those uses are so compati
ble,” Gillem said, “there’s no need
to keep a clear segregation of use. ”
Though these students will move
on, Gillem will be continuing their
work. He has built their zoning
specifications into a studio for
next term.
“Next term architecture students
will have to design buildings to
these rules,” Gillem said.
Contact the city, state politics reporter
at ckagan@dailyemerald.com
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BY JIM ABRAMS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — From building
a fence to keep them out to passing
a law to help them stay, members of
Congress have lots of ideas on how
to respond to President Bush’s chal
lenge to take on the problem of ille
gal immigrants. There’s a will to act
but so far not much consensus.
The first stab at the problem
could come in the next two weeks,
when the House may vote on legis
lation to strengthen border security.
That’s the easiest of the three legs of
immigration reform. The others, en
forcing workplace hiring rules and
setting up a guest-worker program
that might incorporate illegal
immigrants, are far more divisive.
In the Senate, Majority Leader
Bill Frist plans to bring up a border
security bill in February, and use
that as a starting point for broader
reform. “We must boldly address
the challenges of border security
first,” Frist, R-Tenn., said this week
as Bush toured the Texas-Mexico
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The House bill will likely come
from Judiciary Committee Chair
man James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.,
with the focus on tighter borders
and some elements of workplace
enforcement. His spokesman, Jeff
Lungren, said it could contain a
proposal by Rep. Ken Calvert, R
Calif., to expand a program for ver
ifying employee records with the
Homeland Security Department
and the Social Security Administra
tion, and another by Rep. David
Dreier, R-Calif., to make Social
Security cards more tamperproof.
But there are lots of other propos
als to choose from. The Homeland
Security Committee this month ap
proved a bill by its chairman, Rep.
Peter King, R-N.Y., that would add
border patrol agents, make use of
new monitoring technology includ
ing unmanned aerial vehicles and
end the “catch and release” practice
for non-Mexican illegals.
Dozens of other border security
bills have been introduced, many
by conservatives and border state
lawmakers fed up with the govern
ment’s failure to stop the flow of
illegal immigrants.
Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., is seek
ing $2 billion to build a fence along
the border with Mexico. Rep. Tom
Tancredo, R-Colo., who has made
a crackdown on illegal immigrants
the theme of a longshot presiden
tial bid, is among several who
would change existing law to allow
use of the military for border en
forcement. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R
Ariz., has an extensive bill that
would let state and local police
enforce immigration law.
Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff said Thursday
that fencing didn’t make sense in
deserts. “A wall across the border
would be phenomenally expen
sive,” he told reporters, and “it
wouldn’t be particularly effective.”
Congress already has taken sev
eral steps this year to tighten bor
der security, including making it
easier to deny admission to people
linked to terrorism and setting na
tional standards for obtaining dri
ver’s licenses. A Homeland Securi
ty Department spending bill this
October provided money to add
1,000 border patrol agents to the
current 11,000.
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