Metro

Town center goes to Olympics:
Willow Springs site is featured in design exhibit

By Annemarie Mannion, Special to the Tribune
February 1, 2002

Visitors to the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City are expecting to see the world’s best athletes, but they also will be able to see another form of excellence: architecture

An exhibit, “The Physical Fitness of Cities,” will highlight 60 projects from around the world that demonstrate how architecture, urban planning and other disciplines can promote physical fitness and well-being.

Willow Springs’ new village center, which is under construction, is part of the exhibition that starts Friday and will be on display through March 29 at City Hall in Salt Lake City.

Stephen Goldsmith, planning director for Salt Lake City, said the Olympics seemed to be an ideal event for presenting architecture that aspires to excellence and contributes to physical fitness.

“We thought I would be the perfect venue,” he said. “It brings together the world’s greatest athletes. And we thought, ‘Why don’t we see if we can bring together the … world’s best [architecture], the architecture that is of long-lasting value.”

When completed, Willow Springs’ village center on Market Street downtown will feature 50,000 square feet of retail space, 81 condominiums, 130 units for independent senior living, 131 town homes, a new Village Hall and a renovated Metra station.

The site is intended to be pedestrian-friendly with a bike / nature path and a park.

The exhibition will feature drawings and descriptions of the project prepared by the architect, Stephen Yas of Yas/Fischel Partnership in Evanston.

“It’s entirely a pedestrian environment for 700 people (who will live there). You don’t need a car to get around,” Yas said.

“We wanted it to be a place where you could live, shop and grab a train, all within walking distance,” said Chris Limas, Willow Springs administrator.

Goldsmith said the projects selected for the exhibit are environmentally friendly and may, as the village center does, emphasize a range of different uses.

Some of the details in Yas’ plan, such as sidewalk mailboxes and the bike/walking path, made the project stand out because those elements promote well-being, Goldsmith said.

The sidewalk mailboxes in the townhouse development will give neighbors a chance to chat as they post or pick up mail.

“They’ve brought in the human factor,” Goldsmith said. “How do you get neighbors to interact? The mailboxes may seem a small detail, but those small details make a project.”

Other projects selected for the exhibition include a footbridge in Germany that connects two neighborhoods and a marketplace in Nairobi that has a variety of recreational and retail uses.

The exhibition begins with a symposium for architects, urban planners and engineers from around the world who will discuss the responsibility of their professions to create developments that encourage well-being and health.

Goldsmith said he is hoping the exhibition will generate ideas for healthy developments that people will want to see replicated in their own communities.

The exhibition also will be useful for city officials who hope to someday host an Olympics.

“Cities look at the Olympics as an opportunity to improve infrastructure and economic development,” he said. “This will give them a benchmark.” The developer of the village center is Heritage Renaissance Partners of Willow Springs. The company also has proposed to build a 300-acre mixed-use development in Willow Springs and Lemont that would feature a range of recreational and retail uses and homes for 2,500 people.