Starting to see the light

Architects focus on troubled neighborhood

By Paul Snyder

The Willow Way concept adds a curve to Allied Drive to slow traffic, and it attempts to reuse all of the buildings in the neighborhood. Rendering courtesy of AIA Southwest Wisconsin

Alice Howard is a patient woman.

The president of the Allied-Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association, which oversees Allied Drive — one of Madison’s poorest and most challenged neighborhoods — spent more than 20 years watching people come and go from the Allied Drive community.

She’s listened for years as city executives pitch plans to change the area for the better, but she’s yet to see results. She’s watched the local media descend on the area time and again to cover shootings, drug busts and other forms of miscellaneous crime that are now synonymous with the neighborhood.

And, frankly, she’s losing patience.

“You can’t come into Allied Drive thinking it’s going to be easy,” Howard said. “We’re in a battle to be heard, and whoever comes in here has to be open to that. They have to be real.”

Ask her about the reputation the neighborhood’s cultivated, and she quickly points out that most of the people causing the problems don’t live there. Ask her about city initiatives to bring change to the area, and she rolls her eyes and scoffs with the cynicism of someone who’s witnessed a few too many broken promises.

The Rosenberry Road concept establishes a community commons on the north side of the Allied Drive area and a neighborhood square in the middle of the neighborhood. Rendering courtesy of AIA Southwest Wisconsin

So when Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced the formation of the Allied Drive Steering Committee in early 2006 to find ways to change both the environment and perception of the neighborhood, it’s a safe bet that Howard wasn’t holding her breath.

When the city announced the purchase of nine rental buildings in the neighborhood in May, the outlook looked more positive, but no one scheduled any celebrations on Allied Drive — yet.

As with most crucial investments, timing is everything.

Madison didn’t plan to buy the Allied Drive buildings on the eve of the American Institute of Architects 150th anniversary celebration. But that’s just what happened.

Likewise, the organization didn’t originally target Allied Drive when it launched AIA150’s Blueprint for America Initiative to honor the AIA’s 150 years. The program is a series of at least 150 local forums conducted across the nation where architects, citizens and neighborhood leaders discuss a community’s distinct needs.

According to the plan, the architects take those discussions and turn them into construction designs to improve the community.

“We want to demonstrate what we can do,” said William Babcock, executive director of the AIA Wisconsin. “The thought behind it is that if we all contributed a little something, we could quickly build this patchwork quilt of lasting projects that people could look back on and say, ‘They made a difference.’”

Melissa Destree, owner of Madison-based Destree Design Architects, reviews the list of concerns and suggestions given by residents during the preliminary workshops of the community meetings. Photo by Paul Snyder

Babcock said that by the end of 2007, all four regions of AIA Wisconsin will take part in a community initiative. While three of the regions have yet to finalize plans, Madison’s investment in Allied Drive gave the AIA Southwest Wisconsin the focus it was looking for.

For four days in September, about 40 architects volunteered their time and expertise to host community meetings under the banners of “We C.A.A.N. (Create an Allied Neighbor-hood)” and “Move Forward. Not Out.” The time and work from the architects, which Babcock estimated at about $200,000, was given freely to the city and community.

During the meetings, architects listened to Allied Drive community residents talk about problems with current designs and what they wanted to see in a redesign effort.

“It wasn’t hard at all for us,” said Melissa Destree, owner of Madison-based Destree Design Architects and president of the AIA Southwest Wisconsin. “Usually, we sit down with a client, ask what they want and draw it up for them. It’s the same thing here, just on a bigger scale.”

By the final night of the meeting, three concepts were unveiled. Each covered residents’ most prominent requests, including windows and doorways facing the street, park and playground areas that are visually accessible from residents’ homes, and increased green and communal space.

“It’s amazing to see what they did in four days, considering many of the architects had never worked together before,” said Babcock. “They thought through a lot of things, and it was exciting for everyone involved. The architects really felt good about what they did.”

And they weren’t the only ones who were impressed.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz fields questions from the Allied Drive community on the final night of the community meetings in September. Photo by Paul Snyder

“It was fantastic,” said Howard. “It worked well. They listened to what we want, and that’s what’s been missing for all this time.

“The city has in their mind what they want to do, but they weren’t seeing what we were seeing every day. Now they know. The city’s listening more, and developers are listening more.”

But the byproduct of an effort that produced three individual concepts is the per-sonal investment from the architects who drew up the designs. While all three feature similar elements, they also have unique touches like bike paths, gateways and suggestions for building usage.

“You grow attached to the designs, and you want to keep helping,” Destree said.

She said that despite the success of the community meetings, a lot of residents want to make sure the city follows through with the plans.

But after the architects present to the Madison City Council in January the concepts and an 80-page document explaining the history, process and techniques used in coming up with their ideas, their work, for the most part, is over.

And while Destree said she and the other architects would like to remain involved in even a consultant capacity, Mark Olinger, the city’s director of planning and development, told them there’s no money in the city budget to keep them on board.

That doesn’t mean the architects are entirely out of the equation, however.

“Whoever ends up buying the properties to redevelop them could give the architects some role in the process,” Olinger said. “That’s always a possibility.”

But Olinger said he also knows that’s not the most important question he’ll have to answer.

Allied Drive residents listen to the architects’ presentations in September for the three concept plans. Photo by Paul Snyder

“There is absolutely going to be something resulting from this process, and I don’t think there will be any drastic change from these plans,” he said. “The change that will come will just be a matter of refinement and detail, not wholesale rejection.

“The city will continue to honor the process with which this was carried out.”

With that in mind, however, Olinger said the community needs to be patient.

“Even if I started tomorrow, it’d be a good year before people could move in to these units — probably two,” he said. “It’ll take awhile to see all this through because we’ll have to move some people out for construction. But I think that in the end, it will allow more people to take advantage of the product.”

Howard can accept patience, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be silent. She said the community will take an avid role in keeping the city focused because this initiative is too promising to let it slip away like so many false starts before.

The Allied Drive community, she said, is ready to fight for this plan.

“We have to keep it on an even keel and make sure it stays at the top of [the city’s] agenda,” she said.

And how does she plan to accomplish that goal?

“By staying in their faces.”