It’s like the Project for Public Spaces and every artist’s rendering of every project ever dreamed up had a baby, and that baby threw up all over downtown Springfield.
My wife and I walked down to Main Street for lunch yesterday and there were people everywhere. I decided to venture out today and take some pictures to preserve this pre MGM moment for posterity. In the 70’s and 80’s we created a lot of little parks and plazas but most of them paid too little attention to the little things that William Whyte and the Project for Public Spaces had to say about succesful place making, but lo, just a scant 40 years later and we’ve nailed it!
Movable furniture, music, food, water, lots of places to sit and watch other people walk by…possibly looking for places to sit to watch other people walking by. These photographs are all from the two block area just south of and on the opposite side of MGM from Court Square. There’s One Financial Plaza, the Birdicus Giganticus outdoor dining area of Nadim’s, the Starbucks at Monarch Place, and the plaza at 1550 Main Street.
Even on a hot day there are people on the sunny side of the street, people on bikes, moms with strollers, business people. It’s a lot like what a normal place should look like on a summer afternoon.
I’d say we’re comfortably on the cutting edge of 1982 urbanism. Time to throw on a little “Upstairs at Eric’s”, watch the last episode of M*A*S*H, and prepare for the Patriots to start another shambolic NFL season! Better late than never.
The truth is, I’m having hard time comprehending it all.
Great Blog
I couldn’t have said it any better!!
Wow! So maybe you don’t need MGM at all?!
It’s like Dumbo and the Magic Feather. He didn’t NEED the Magic Feather to fly but because he thought he needed it to fly he did until he realized he didn’t! A lot of the confidence to invest is coming from the belief that it could work which has always been lacking here.