Madison residents, business owners and government officials gathered Tuesday night to hear concept ideas for downtown Madison's Alley Activation project.
About 30 people attended the public meeting at Red Bicycle Hall in downtown Madison where architects with Gresham, Smith and Partners of Louisville unveiled three concept designs for a public space in an underutilized alley.
The alley chosen for the pilot project is between the Subway restaurant and former JoeyG's nightclub.
Amin Omidy with Gresham, Smith and Partners presented three concept designs for the $100,000 project, which featured a gateway entry point from Main Street, a canopy and different layouts for public use.
The city received a grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to start up the alley project.
The first concept features a "one room" design with seating around the outer perimeter of the alley.
A second concept featured a "three room" design with benches helping to break up the different areas, which could be used for different events.
A third concept featured a "fragmented" design with several benches throughout the alley with larger meeting areas mixed in with smaller group gathering spaces.
Some of the designs showed lights above the alley, which would form an open air canopy. All of the plans met the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.
The concept ideas also highlighted examples used in other alley projects, yet officials want the project to take on a look of its own.
"We want this to be distinctly Madison," Omidy said.
Architects heard concerns from the audience about security and the future use of the space. A few residents asked how officials expected to keep the area safe and from being vandalized.
Others asked who would be in charge of planning events for the new space.
Andrew Forrester, the city's community relations coordinator, said the space would most likely have programming coordinated by the city. The space might be like other public spaces in the city, which wouldn't require a lot of specialized programming.
"Maybe we don't want this to be a program space," he said. "Maybe we want this to be a hangout."
Architects will take the public's comments into consideration while designing a final plan, Mike Sewell with Gresham, Smith and Partners said.
The community will have an opportunity to give ideas for the project through a survey, which is available online at www.visionmadison.org. The slideshow from the public meeting also is available online.
A final concept plan is expected to be unveiled to the public in mid-August. The project could go to bid just weeks after that.
While no alley project of this scale has been completed in a local community, other metropolitan areas - like Indianapolis and Louisville - and other communities throughout the United States have had great success with the renovated spaces, Sewell said.
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