Creative minds from the outside have envisioned great possibilities for Terre Haute before.
Ninety years ago, famed Kansas City public parks architect George Kessler designed a 40-mile scenic drive to circumnavigate the city of Terre Haute. He called for it to be built in stages. Republican Mayor Ora Davis backed the idea, but spending concerns forced it to the backburner. The beltway encircling the town never materialized. If Kessler’s plan had been realized, its potential to attract visitors, new residents and prospective businesses today would be great.
Last week, another visionary view of Terre Haute was unveiled. The Turn to the River project features proposals by visiting artists to use public art, landscaping and changes in public facilities to reconnect the city with its greatest natural resource, the Wabash River. Art Spaces Inc. organized the $50,000 study, with $25,000 provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, $5,000 from the city Department of Redvelopment and additional support from the city, Indiana State University, Rose-Hulman and Ivy Tech. Terre Haute residents also contributed ideas and suggestions to link the famous river with the downtown.
The citizens’ recommendations carry weight. The locals know what they like and don’t like about the areas surrounding the city-county government campus, downtown, Fairbanks Park and the Wabash. Meanwhile, the comments from three respected artists with national and international experience in design of public spaces provide a crucial, unvarnished outside expertise.
The artists — Stacy Levy, Buster Simpson and Betsy Damon — gave frank assessments and practical solutions to the physical disconnect between the downtown and the river.
The artists illuminated elements we all tend to overlook and accept as, “Well, that’s just the way it is here.” They see the remnant of the old U.S. 40 bridge across the Wabash, torn down and replace by the twin bridges in the 1990s, as a potential destination and gathering point for people walking or biking from downtown to the river. It’s a scenic overlook waiting to happen.
In her comments, Levy wondered why the location — or even the existence — of the river isn’t depicted on signs or the “Walking Wabash” maps. “The first most important act of celebrating this flow is getting people to the banks of the river,” she wrote. Simpson recommends creating an “episodic journey” for pedestrians, with the easing of impediments, such as the difficult pedestrian crossing of Third Street at the end of Wabash Avenue.
Mary Kramer, executive director of Art Spaces, emphasized two suggestions raised in the Turn to the River project — a feasibility study for a pedestrian bridge over Third Street, and relocating the Vigo County Jail complex.
Turn to the River contains relevant, imaginative ideas that could generate economic growth and a higher quality of life here. City and county government leaders, business groups, labor unions, church congregations, social organizations, outdoors clubs and average citizens should take a long, thoughtful look at it and give it momentum to deliver real improvements.