FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Randy Gray, Chairman, Downtown Leadership Council - rgray02@hotmail.com or Tony St. Romaine, Assistant City Manager - (573) 874-7721

Public invited to transform downtown areas

COLUMBIA, MO (June 4, 2010) - “Charrette” does not mean “little chair.” In the parlance of urban planning, it’s an intense period of brainstorming, talk, discovery and agreement to priorities that will move a plan forward. Charrettes are coming to downtown Columbia, starting June 10.

Hosted by the Downtown Columbia Leadership Council (DCLC) and facilitated by St. Louis-based H3 Studio Inc., the charrette process is designed to transform marginal areas of downtown while maintaining its existing strengths.

Work will focus on two general areas: 1) the Broadway – Providence Road intersection, including currently vacant and under-used sites; and 2) the North Village arts district, already experiencing redevelopment and revival.

DCLC Chairman Randy Gray said that when the H3 Studio team lands in Columbia next week, they will set up at offices downtown at the Berry Building, 1025 E. Walnut, for about a month. “The Berry Building is at the heart of the action. We’ll have stakeholder and focus group meetings there, and it will be open to anyone who wants to talk about downtown,” Gray said.

The charrette is tightly scheduled to make sure that everything gets done on time. “It’s kind of like final exams and akin to when drivers with wagons used to pick up assignments from French architecture students, who were trying to make deadlines,” Gray said. “Charrette” is French for “cart.”

To Gray, it’s most important that anyone who cares about downtown feels welcome to participate. “Without ideas from people who work, live or do business downtown, this will be wasted motion. We need good ideas and honest talk to get beyond the planning stage and to produce tangible results,” Gray said. “And, we would love to have e-mail addresses to reach as many people as possible with this message.”

Information about the charette process is online at www.GoColumbiaMo.com, and you can follow the Downtown Charrette Planning Process on Facebook. Scheduled events are listed below.

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