Design charette offers vision to mission city
San Juan Bautista held a design charrette Nov. 2 through Nov. 4
to help citizens, city officials, and property owners identify
possibilities for new development in the city.
Design charette offers vision to mission city
San Juan Bautista held a design charrette Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 to help citizens, city officials, and property owners identify possibilities for new development in the city.
The charrette featured students and professors from the School of Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and architects from the Monterey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a professional association of architects.
Day one of the charette was an opportunity for members of the community to express their concerns and ideas. Between 20 and 30 people attended.
“The consensus was that they want to bring economic vitality back downtown while preserving San Juan,” said Jan McClintock, city manager, referring to community members.
Day two was a day for the architects to develop specific plans for San Juan.
“I think they had some very creative suggestions,” McClintock said, “Really great suggestions about how to use some of those vacant lots in really creative ways.”
The architects suggested that downtown San Juan could be made more pedestrian friendly if the street crossings were clearly marked, McClintock said. They recommended closing Mariposa to cars between Second and Third streets. That would enhance the connection between the mission and the downtown area.
There were five student architects and three lead architects in attendance throughout the charette. Up to six or eight other architects attended the charette at different points during the weekend.
On day three, the architects presented their ideas back to the community. At least 40 members of the community attended the presentation.
“I thought they really liked a lot of their ideas,” McClintock said, referring to the attendees.”The next step is to try to get people in the community to act on and take ownership of some of these project ideas the architects came up with.”
The design charette represents more than one year of work on the part of McClintock and the city planner, Matthew Sundt. They first started speaking with the Monterey architects about a design charette early in the summer of 2006.
It was worth it, McClintock said.
“I think it sparked some creativity and some activity in the downtown, with respect to property owners, and some new life,” McClintock said. “It’s worth its weight in gold.”
The student architects, all seniors, had fresh ideas, McClintock said. One of the most important things that came out of the charette was a point made by the students.
“History goes forward. What we do today will be the history of tomorrow. What is the history that you want to leave?”
