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Sioux City Charrette, as a part of Iowa by
Design
 As
a
part of the Blueprint for America initiative, the American Institute of
Architects, Iowa Chapter
has committed to organizing 6 weekend charrettes of creative visioning
in communities across Iowa. In order to complete their goals,
AIA
Iowa has partnered with the Iowa Architectural
Foundation,
which offers a Community Design Program. This program sends a
team of design industry professionals to communities throughout Iowa to
offer design consultation and guidance.
The charrette progress often begins with learning some of the
community’s history in order to better envision is
future.
In the late 1800s, Sioux
City, IA
was known for its impressive Stockyards, which were some of the largest
in the county at that time. The “Yards”
proved
instrumental in developing Sioux City as a center for commerce, but the
city has moved into new era of development and new ventures are being
explored. The Tyson
Event Center
was recently opened in December of 2003, for example. As the
city
continues to grow and develop, its citizens are beginning to realize
the need to improve the urban environment in order to foster new
business and revitalize downtown. Recently, Sioux City has
adopted a broad plan outlining ways to further develop their downtown
area and encourage more commerce and industry for the town.
As a
part of this plan, the city applied to IAF’s Community Design
Program in order to gain a new perspective in designing
downtown.
 In
one extensive weekend in April of 2007, Sioux City gained an
impressive amount of advice from a team of 11 design industry
professionals explaining how design could improve their
community. The team comprised of three landscape architects,
one
landscape architecture student, one traffic engineer, four architects,
an officer from Iowa State University’s Extension Office, and
the
Executive Director of IAF, Kirsten Anderson. During this
weekend,
more than forty residents of Sioux City and the design team worked
together to take stock of Sioux City’s downtown and then
envision
some goals for it’s future. The city and team
decided to
focus on the city’s growing western downtown.
In a new development for Sioux City, the Iowa Department of
Transportation has decided to build a new exit ramp from Interstate 29
that would lead directly to western downtown Sioux City. In
order
to ready themselves for the influx of people and traffic from the now
convenient exit, the city has recognized the need to beautify the
downtown areas in close proximity to where the new exit ramp will be
constructed. In order to improve the appearance of western
downtown, the team recommended that parking be removed to the rear and
buildings should be placed in the foreground, closest to the most
traveled streets. In addition, the team advised that parking
areas be camouflaged from pedestrian view by adding a row of greenery
or public art between pedestrian walkways and parking lots.
Sioux City’s western downtown area is located to the
northwest of
the Missouri River, directly to the north of I-29, and just north of
the Tyson Events Center. Citizens were concerned with the
pedestrian access connecting downtown to the scenic riverfront
district. The design team suggested constructing decorative
bridges that would safely allow pedestrians to move comfortably between
the two areas. The addition of new walking and biking trails
around the perimeter of downtown and the riverfront area was also
proposed by the team.
 The
design team also suggested “smart planning”
additions
to downtown. This included adding
“mixed-use”
buildings with residential living areas in the upper levels and offices
or retail opportunities below. The charrette team also
proposed
offering incentives, such as tax abatement, to residents and business
people settling downtown. A parking ramp was suggested as a
way
to limit the amount of concrete surface area visible in parking
areas. It was recommended that the city encourage the
addition of
a new corporate headquarters to the downtown community in order to
foster economic growth.
One of downtown Sioux City’s major problems is its lack of
greenspace. Citizens explained that they wanted to add more
greenery to their downtown. The team suggested adding more
pedestrian friendly streetscapes in their urban environment.
This
would include planters with vibrant flowers, benches to provide space
to relax, and trees to create shade and additional color. The
possibility of adding banners, public art, historic lighting, and/or
signifiers/markers indicating directions and neighborhoods was also
suggested. The team recommended the installation of
“pocket
parks,” small green spaces with benches along city
streets.
Deciding upon one comprehensive and cohesive design theme or concept
for all of these “pedestrian accessories” improves
and
unifies the appearance of downtown.
 Furthermore,
the design team proposed adding a green
“corridor” to their western downtown environment by
adding
trees along major throughways, like Pierce Street. These
corridors encourage drivers to stop downtown and spend time and money
in the community. Corridors also provide a sense of direction
for
travel and draw drivers and pedestrians to retailers and businesses
located downtown. The addition of a center focal point for
the
corridor, perhaps a fountain, would help unify the downtown
area.
These proposed additions should all include a cohesive design and
perhaps branding to unify the design concepts. Sioux City has
a
history of using terra cotta for details inside and outside buildings
and this should be continued when installing the design
team’s
proposed additions.
Although the design team was able to provide quite a lot of guidance to
the Sioux City, they initially experienced some challenges in their
visioning process. The city had not originally focused on an
area
of consideration and wanted advice about quite a large piece of their
city. The team was forced to narrow the margins to a focused
area
of downtown, so that they would better serve the community and make
much more specific proposals.
Everyone involved felt the weekend was a success. As Rodger
Caudron, the Executive Director of Downtown Partners Sioux City, said
in a survey evaluating the charrette, the design team was of
“excellent quality” and had “great
ideas.” He added, “The team seemed to
mesh together
well.” The charrette weekend was a successful
meeting to
envision a new possible future for the look and feel of western
downtown Sioux City.
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