Des Moines Register
04-08-06
Letters to the Editor
REGISTER READERS
Don’t turn Nollen Plaza green
Not another green park in the midst of downtown. Today’s popular idea of “going green” seems to be taken too literally. Nollen Plaza, the only and most strategically located urban plaza in downtown Des Moines is being considered for a major renovation, which will transform it into another green park.
Des Moines has made major efforts in the past decade or so to revitalize its urban life and urban character, to reposition itself as a viable alternative to the sprawling suburbs. The character of urban places and activities in the city center must be different from those of suburban places or the large urban parks that Des Moines is blessed with.
Just two blocks to the east of Nollen Plaza, a major riverside park is now under construction; just six blocks to the west Des Moines’ new “Central Park,” 90 percent green, is being implemented — only five blocks north of another large park, Gray’s Lake. Urban public life takes place on sidewalks and in squares, not on lawns and park paths. Despite the relatively limited time outdoor space is used in Iowa, alternative places that encourage spontaneous happenings and exchange between people of all kinds (not only families and children) should be an integral part of a downtown scheme.
This is the case with our northern neighbor, downtown Minneapolis, where hard-surface plazas serve as theaters and settings for gatherings, and green parks are kept at the periphery and along the waterways. Nollen Plaza needs renovation, but must remain an urban plaza and not turned into a cute neighborhood park. The beautiful existing tree grove, aligned on a skewed grid should remain in place and become part of a new plaza with an additional outdoor café and possibilities for food vendors, fun and public display.
— Mira Engler, associate professor of landscape architecture,
Iowa State University, Ames.