Downtown plans compete
LSU students develop ideas for riverfront
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LSU landscape architecture students on Friday focused their creative energies on tackling one of Baton Rouge’s enduring problems — how to better connect the city to the Mississippi River.
Eight teams of students presented designs they had worked on for three days to a group of professors from the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture and one visitor — Matthew Bradbury, an acclaimed landscape architect from New Zealand.
It was an academic exercise and the ideas were ambitious and unrestrained by budgetary concerns, market realities or engineering limitations.
One imagined algae farms producing biofuels and underwater turbines providing power to local businesses. Another turned Corporate Canal into a “green way” that ran through the southern part of downtown into a wetlands area in the former Catfish Town. Still another suggested using multicolored shipping containers for retail and living space on a landing that ran from the Shaw Center of the Arts to the river.
All plans acknowledged the reality that the levee, River Road and the railroad tracks create the biggest obstacles.
The winning entry came from a team that suggested building a structure from Lafayette Street to the levee, over River Road and the railroad tracks. The structure’s roof was a broad walkway with access to shops or offices below.
Second place went to an idea called Biotech Baton Rouge, which suggested building an algae farm near the State Capitol to produce biofuels, and turbines in the river. Fuel cells would provide power to buildings and transition to the site’s public space, allowing visitors to learn about the process.
James Anderman of the Downtown Development District praised the idea of incorporating economic development with recreational uses. Professor Bruce Sharky praised the idea of connecting people with energy sources.
Third place went to an idea that suggested a series of interlocking barges, from Spanish Town to the Old State Capitol, that could fit together like puzzle pieces or move up and down the river for events. Presenter Natalie Yates said the barges could be used by individuals or as a central gathering area.
Being an academic exercise, there were criticisms as well as praise.
The winning entry was among the most criticized by judges, mostly for the students’ presentation and how effectively they illustrated their ideas.
“Where is it and what are we looking at?” asked professor Sharky.
The idea to create a deck from Lafayette Street to the levee was criticized by a judge who noted that the team hadn’t solved the access problem, they had simply elevated it.
The group was praised for having the courage to scrap its original idea 24 hours before judging because it simply didn’t work.
“There is kind of a formula” to commercial riverfront projects, Bradbury explained in an interview before the presentations. “You see it on every waterfront. It’s become generic.”
The goal of the project, he said, was to bring the river to the city more than the city to the river.
The group that proposed Corporate Canal as the centerpiece said a portion that now runs under a school gave them the idea of making a rain garden that could be used for educational purposes.
Samantha Montoya pitched her group’s idea of an arboretum on the northern end of the downtown riverfront. The plan uses structures in the river to trap sediment, creating a new landmass for native plants to grow and people to congregate.
It was perhaps a fitting entry, in that its creativity stood in marked contrast with the logistical difficulties of pulling it off.
Eight teams of students presented designs they had worked on for three days to a group of professors from the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture and one visitor — Matthew Bradbury, an acclaimed landscape architect from New Zealand.
It was an academic exercise and the ideas were ambitious and unrestrained by budgetary concerns, market realities or engineering limitations.
One imagined algae farms producing biofuels and underwater turbines providing power to local businesses. Another turned Corporate Canal into a “green way” that ran through the southern part of downtown into a wetlands area in the former Catfish Town. Still another suggested using multicolored shipping containers for retail and living space on a landing that ran from the Shaw Center of the Arts to the river.
All plans acknowledged the reality that the levee, River Road and the railroad tracks create the biggest obstacles.
The winning entry came from a team that suggested building a structure from Lafayette Street to the levee, over River Road and the railroad tracks. The structure’s roof was a broad walkway with access to shops or offices below.
Second place went to an idea called Biotech Baton Rouge, which suggested building an algae farm near the State Capitol to produce biofuels, and turbines in the river. Fuel cells would provide power to buildings and transition to the site’s public space, allowing visitors to learn about the process.
James Anderman of the Downtown Development District praised the idea of incorporating economic development with recreational uses. Professor Bruce Sharky praised the idea of connecting people with energy sources.
Third place went to an idea that suggested a series of interlocking barges, from Spanish Town to the Old State Capitol, that could fit together like puzzle pieces or move up and down the river for events. Presenter Natalie Yates said the barges could be used by individuals or as a central gathering area.
Being an academic exercise, there were criticisms as well as praise.
The winning entry was among the most criticized by judges, mostly for the students’ presentation and how effectively they illustrated their ideas.
“Where is it and what are we looking at?” asked professor Sharky.
The idea to create a deck from Lafayette Street to the levee was criticized by a judge who noted that the team hadn’t solved the access problem, they had simply elevated it.
The group was praised for having the courage to scrap its original idea 24 hours before judging because it simply didn’t work.
“There is kind of a formula” to commercial riverfront projects, Bradbury explained in an interview before the presentations. “You see it on every waterfront. It’s become generic.”
The goal of the project, he said, was to bring the river to the city more than the city to the river.
The group that proposed Corporate Canal as the centerpiece said a portion that now runs under a school gave them the idea of making a rain garden that could be used for educational purposes.
Samantha Montoya pitched her group’s idea of an arboretum on the northern end of the downtown riverfront. The plan uses structures in the river to trap sediment, creating a new landmass for native plants to grow and people to congregate.
It was perhaps a fitting entry, in that its creativity stood in marked contrast with the logistical difficulties of pulling it off.
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