Avenue of the Columns Update

Here's a great article by Daniel Cailler of the Columbia Daily Tribune on the Avenue of the Columns progress:

Avenue backers look for jump-start
New city hall could boost Eighth Street

After the public plaza for the new city hall is completed this spring, improvements will spill out onto the Eighth Street and Broadway intersection.

The goal is to rekindle efforts of the long-running Avenue of the Columns project, which seeks to alter the landscape along Eighth Street from the Boone County Courthouse to the University of Missouri campus.

Assistant City Manager Tony St. Romaine wants to use construction of the new city hall as a catalyst for the project. A first step will be to redesign the Eighth Street and Broadway intersection to aesthetically match the look of the city hall plaza. For example, the old pavers in the road will be replaced with bricks more closely matching the colors used in the plaza.

“The end result will be a uniform design,” St Romaine said.

The city recently submitted a proposal to engineering firm K&S Associates for pricing of the intersection work.

The facelift won’t stop at the street. Using $250,000 in state tax credits secured by the city last year, Landmark Bank, Boone County National Bank and Greenwing Development LLC, owner of the building that houses the restaurant Sycamore, will receive a 50 percent tax credit against the cost of sidewalk improvements along their properties. The work will include installation of trees, benches, new brickwork and lighting.

All the work will coincide with the master plan document approved by the Avenue of the Columns Committee in 2005.

“What we hope that will do is set the standard for any future development,” St. Romaine said.

Further work depends on public-private partnerships, he said, because the city lacks money to do it on its own.

Mary Wilkerson, vice president of marketing at Boone County National Bank, is chairwoman of the Avenue of the Columns Committee. She said the goal of the project goes beyond beautification to creating a reason to lure pedestrians down the street.

A lack of retail space and imposing parking garages has stifled activity, she said.

“Until you have the type of mixed-use economic activity on Eighth as you do on Ninth, all the beautification won’t make a difference,” she said.

Improvements to Courthouse Square in the 1990s kicked off the plan, but Wilkerson said she knew when she started that the master plan would require multiple properties working together to implement it.

“There’s a lot that can be accomplished, but it won’t happen overnight. You’ve got to partner efforts with actual activity on the streets,” she said.

Wilkerson hopes the city hall project and plans to renovate the Tiger Hotel will spur additional improvements in the near future.

“For me, it’s a labor of love. I’m excited about seeing part of the streetscape project being implemented. That’s a huge accomplishment,” Wilkerson said.