PANEL 1
Perspectives of the four blocks from Benefit Street to North Main Street, between North Court and Church Streets. Showing greenspace, decked over parking, and rehabilitated historic structures.
BRIAN GROSS
"The one thing I personally detest in cities are surface parking lots. They are a repugnant use of space and the scourge of urban planning. Which is what makes this particular panel so intriguing.
Warner was able to realize the need for additional parking but cleverly make it disappear under usable outdoor decks. Land that would have been littered with automobiles is transformed into a relaxing outdoor space. My eyeballs thank you Mr. Warner from the bottom of their hearts."
JOHN R. TSCHIRCH
"The designers of this scheme hoped for a revitalized district of houses set in open space with a conscious effort to provide greenery. Much of this was realized except that there are not as many trees in this area today. Their inclusion in the number recommended by this plan would have created a more inviting environment.
One could make the point that the historic East Side did not have many trees in the Benefit and North Main Street areas. The intention of this plan, however, was the creation of a zone of preserved and new structures that revitalized the neighborhood with necessary infill on empty sites. This has been largely achieved due to these well developed plans."
DAVID BRUSSAT
"Panel 1 represents the image that the authors of the survey hoped would be effective at creating public support for the project. The block shown sits between North Court and Cady streets, Benefit and North Main, with the Old State House and its lawn to its south. In the 2nd Edition of the survey the image is in black-and-white. Here, the “poster boy of urban renewal” image has bits of color. The houses to the left are rehabilitated, with cars parked in below-ground shelters decked over behind three of the houses. To the right are eight or more houses also showing an idyllic scene of rehabilitated old houses. But the view is portrayed from a balcony on one of five new apartment houses along North Main (with four more on the next block north). This hints that the idyllic scene, coyly acknowledging interventions such as decked-over parking, is not quite what future residents are led to expect.
The survey is rightly famous for its pathbreaking analysis of the historic fabric at risk in city planning efforts for several decades prior to the study. And it was also very useful at focusing public attention on the need to protect historic fabric. But urban renewal and historic preservation are strange bedfellows in ways that are not sufficiently acknowledged by the authors of the survey."