Senior landscape architecture students and Richmond Town Planner, Denise Stetson, take time out following their public presentation describing green visions for Wyoming village.

Landscape architecture students provide new green visions for Wyoming Village

By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor & Reporter

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If officials in the Town of Richmond had some sort of annual award to give out, chances are they would name a large group of URI Landscape Architect students as their “Heroes of 2007.”

Recently under the guidance of Professor William Green , chairman of the department of landscape architecture, the students gave a two -hour presentation on their visions for a new and improved—and definitely greener—Wyoming Village and town officials hailed the lavishly presented proposals as the first step in converting a drab commercial strip into a flowing thing of beauty.

The presentation, attended by 45 townspeople, represented a 10- week semester-long project by Green’s students. The class was divided into three groups and each group presented its visions for what Wyoming Village could look like with some imaginative planning and design.

For all three visions, “green” was the common theme. Not starting from scratch, each group of students was able to identify existing assets and link them to a new village center and other proposed improvements.

Wyoming Village straddles Route 138 west of the I-95 overpass. It is a collection of parking lots, numerous curb cuts, confusing signage and small strip malls. Adding to this mix is a considerable amount of through-traffic as Route 138 is a main corridor between Rhode Island and Connecticut. In short Wyoming Village is not unlike many other commercial strips in the country that evolved with barely any cohesive planning.

Richmond officials have long recognized that the village area has a multitude of problems and they –the town council, the town planner and the town economic development and conservation commissions sought out help from URI.

Green said the first suggestion to all the groups was to create a mixed use village incorporating commercial uses with office, residential and open space and highlighted sustainable practices.

“The biggest issues,” says Green, “were the through-traffic and safety in an area that lacks any sense of place.” With strips of stores on both sides of the road it is difficult for pedestrians to cross the road. The road, he notes, also has 40-plus curb cuts that allow vehicles to get in and out of parking areas.

As unattractive as the area is currently, it has some assets such as a pond, a small river (the Wood River), a historic mill site and some undeveloped land to the south of Route 138. All of these elements, the students suggested could be put to positive, attractive use.

Among some of the ideas put forth by the students were:

• Build a pedestrian bridge so people can safely get from one side of the road to the other.
• Create a river walk along Wood River which is an underutilized feature in the western-most section of the village that includes some historic housing
• Build an amphitheater for warm weather community events.
• Provide planting areas along Route 138 with attractive sidewalks and street lighting.
• Bring commercial buildings close to the road with attractive plantings.
• Reduce the number of curb cuts by providing for parking to the rear of buildings.
• Provide better public access to Canob Pond.
• Designate an area for a restaurant that overlooks the pond.
• Provide an outside recreational area to the rear of the YMCA.
• Reconstruct commercial facades that are more in keeping with the historic housing area.
• Provide space for a cinema complex, set back from the north side of the highway.
• Provide more off-road development mix, including affordable house and community gardens on land south of the village.
• At the same time the students emphasized that many of their improvements could incorporate sustainable features such as rain gardens and bioswales, green roofs, public squares with native plantings, community gardens, and energy-saving lighting. A few of the students recommended solar panels for buildings and fixtures.

Joe Reddish, town council president, said now with the students’ work in hand, the next step is to let the town’s planning commission take it to the next step.

An opportunity is at hand, he says in that two new drug stores, CVS and Walgreen, are under way and attempts will be made to see whether the property owners can employ some of the elements suggested by the students. Both stores are on the south side of Route 138 and Reddish says it might be best to address one side of the road and then look at the other.

The whole project cost $5,000, he notes “Which is nothing considering what we got in return.”

“The whole process was impressive,” said Reddish. “We have a very diverse town and they were able to come up with all those visions. They did an incredible job.”

With the Wyoming project done, Green said his spring landscape architecture class will have an equally challenging project that is more urban in nature. Details still have to be completed but Green says the next project will be unlike anything he has ever tackled.