Latest news with #ASongforWater
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Peace Plaza paver plan moves forward with desire to do more
Feb. 20—ROCHESTER — A $175,000 plan to address pedestrian concerns in Peace Plaza is moving forward with Rochester City Council members saying more still needs to be done. "I think we need to move on and find a solution, find a new solution," Rochester City Council member Norman Wahl said Wednesday, asking for a more aggressive approach. Others agreed that a different approach would be preferred but cited limited funding for options that included pouring cement walkways along the north and south sides of the plaza. Deputy City Administrator Cindy Steinhauser said other approaches could cost significantly more than the $175,000 already approved by the state Destination Medical Center Corp. board and require up to 15 months of disruption along the plaza and First Avenue. "We have heard concerns from businesses about not impacting their front door, and we want to be sympathetic to that," she said, adding that Peace Plaza is expected to be one place downtown without extensive construction in the next year or two. She said taking smaller steps allows a chance to determine whether future plans need to be made for a more aggressive approach. The council voted 5-2 to support the staff plan, with Wahl and council member Shaun Palmer asking for a different approach. Council member Andy Friederichs said it's not ideal, but it's action headed in the right direction. "At this point, not having a great solution and a big bucket of money to throw at something, I I do feel its the best option at the moment," he said. The approved Peace Plaza effort project aims to expand the use of smooth pavers by replacing portions of Ann Hamilton's "A Song for Water" art installation , which features words with raised lettering that can be read when moving through the plaza. Steinhauser said the work is expected to be completed with limited disruption and continued assessment throughout the summer. At the same time, more analysis is expected to determine why pavers are shifting, since underground heating is expected to eliminate the effects of winter frost and other concerns. Steve Sampson Brown, Rochester's director of construction, said the additional study will help determine why pavers are shifting in Peace Plaza but not other downtown areas. He said it could be related to geological conditions or the fact that the plaza sees greater traffic and activity. In addition to resetting the existing smooth pavers and replacing some raised letter pavers, Steinhauser said work will include providing improved visual cues to distinguish between the wider walkway and the artwork, which will remain in the center of the plaza. Mayor Kim Norton said providing more obvious signals to indicate the pathways will guide pedestrian traffic in a way that is similar to what occurred before the Peace Plaza redesign. "When you had a big fountain in the way and green grass, everyone knew to go to the right or left," she said, referring to a larger fountain that occupied the plaza and turf in the middle of the gathering space. Steinhauser said the former design featured smaller walkways than what is currently in place next to the artwork, and the grass was more difficult to navigate with a wheelchair than the raised-letter pavers. She said the current design was intended to open more space and the planned improvements will make the walkways even wider, in addition to adding north and south pathways with the potential for getting closer to the plaza's water feature without crossing the artwork. Council member Dan Doering voted to support the plan, but cited frustration that more isn't being done to address community concerns. "The response I'm hearing from folks is that they want immediate action for a remedy, that this is truly an unusable space for them," he said. Steinhauser said the planned effort will provide the quickest response to start addressing concerns, with work to start as soon as the weather allows.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
EDITORIAL: Baby steps toward a safer, smoother Peace Plaza
Feb. 15—On June 4, 2022, the Post Bulletin ran an editorial under the following headline: "Love it or hate it, new Peace Plaza is worth the trip." In retrospect, we're not sure whether we love that phrasing or hate it. It might have been clever, or it might been a little bit on-the-nose. In that editorial, we argued that the just-completed $19.4 million "Heart of the City" renovations, which included more than $2 million for a 250-foot "A Song for Water" interactive poem in inscribed pavers, might always be a work in progress. A city evolves. Tastes change. Artistic experiments succeed — or they do not. Our conclusion? "The influence of time and water will ensure that change to 'Heart of the City' will be both necessary and inevitable." We're not always right, but we sure nailed that one. Less than three years after the initial installation, concerns about pedestrians tripping over uneven pavers and their raised lettering have seemingly forced Rochester leaders to take action. One could argue that the status quo still should be a viable option. The city did its homework before the installation, including pedestrian tests of the pavers, and there is no statistical evidence that more people are tripping in the Peace Plaza than they did four years ago. But in this case, perception is reality. The pavers do shift and move, and a small-yet-vocal group of people say the surface is unsafe, especially for people with disabilities. Those concerns have resonated, to the point that doing nothing is no longer an option. Nor is anyone talking about ripping out all of the pavers and covering the plaza with concrete, which would be ugly and expensive — and eventually, it would crack. That leaves two options on the table. The first proposal, which is slated for a city council vote Feb. 19, would make incremental changes to the Peace Plaza over an extended time. Some of the inscribed pavers would be flipped, so that smooth bottom surface would now be on top. This would widen the smooth, uninscribed "buffer" areas around the central poem pavers. People who want to walk on neither words nor water would have plenty of room. These changes would be funded through $175,000 in Destination Medical Center funding. Those dollars would also pay for a study to determine what is causing the pavers to shift. Is it unseen runoff from the surrounding buildings? Is it heat from buried water and sewer lines? Utility-wise, there's a lot going on under the Peace Plaza. If a cause of the current problems can be discovered, then future fixes and changes could be made accordingly. During Monday's city council meeting, however, a majority of members seemed to oppose this incremental approach. They cited complaints from their constituents and pointed out that art doesn't "work" if it is routinely dotted with orange cones and warning signs. They are ready to bury the "A Song for Water" artwork to create an entirely smooth surface. Every inscribed paver would be flipped. We support the incremental approach. There's very little risk (and little extra cost) in moving slowly. It makes sense to flip some of the inscribed stones and expand the smooth border areas while the city tries to figure out what's causing the pavers to rise and/or sink. Indeed, if the ultimate conclusion is that this space/environment is incompatible with pavers and pedestrians, then we'd prefer to learn that lesson before all of the pavers were flipped and re-installed. Erasing "A Song for Water" in its entirety also would be an artistic loss. Indeed, we see some irony in people's eagerness to remove a poem that honors the Native Americans who once lived here and celebrates humanity's physical and spiritual connection with water — the very element that likely is causing the pavers to rise and fall. So, if you're of a philosophical bent, then the Peace Plaza and its shifting stones are now akin to a river — always in flux, never static. Greek philosopher Heraclitus put it this way: "You can't step in the same river twice." That's a fun way to see the Peace Plaza right now — unless you trip, of course. Perhaps the current iteration of the Peace Plaza asks too much of a space that sees 6,000 pedestrians each day. Perhaps Rochester over-reached, trying too hard to be "edgy" when it turned the Peace Plaza into an abstract poem. But perhaps the poem was just a bit too large. Perhaps, as we learn in the Norman Maclean novel "A River Runs Through It," half as many words can have twice the impact. For now, let's try editing the Peace Plaza. Let's narrow the river of words and see what happens.
