Paresi Study: Long- and Short-Term Strategies

Some capital projects can be done in short order.

Others take many years to come to fruition.

Even more are unlikely to ever happen.

Many of the designs and recommendations in the Paresi Study will call for projects that are complete, already underway or very unlikely to happen. That's bound to happen when taking a look back at a plan created 15 years ago.

However, the study was broken into long-term and immediate recommendations for the .

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This is the second post in a series of articles refreshing the visions of the Paresi Design Studio's "Urban Design and Waterfront Study," which was completed in February 1997.

Monday, unveiled some plans for .

Today, check out the city-wide plans for the downtown revitalization, which was tackled in two general phases.

Immediate strategies called for:

• Downtown retail and commercial revitalization program
• Decorative paving squares at key intersections
• Legion Square grand entrance
• New fill-in, mixed-use development projects
• A waterfront promenade and city pier at the foot of Franklin Street near
• A hotel/conference center with a marina along St. John Street between Congres and Pennington Avenues

Long-term strategies called for the above projects, as well as:

• Further new fill-in, mixed-use development projects
• Heritage park/town green near Rochambeau Plaza
• Water plant site development
• Transportation center, including train station/bus depot

See the four PDFs included with this post. They provide visuals of where the projects would take place, as well as verbal descriptions of the benefits of each element.

The overall study called for a number of waterfront hotel/conference center options—including one just north of the Amtrak bridge, and one at what was then Penn's Beach Marina.

Those two elements were not included in either the long-term or short-term strategies that accompany this post.

TELL US: What do you think of the immediate and long-term visions of the study? Would any of the ideas in this 15-year-old study still work? Are any out of the question? Which would you do first? Leave a comment below.