Downtown Columbus

Last week I blogged about a ride I went on with my dad along the Olentangy River in Columbus, Ohio; that was not the entire ride. We also biked along the trails (and streets) of Downtown Columbus and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Background/Introduction

I feel before I get into the ride I should provide a little background on Downtown Columbus as it is quite possibly the main reason I became interested in planning.  When I was a kid, my mom (who is a school teacher and had summers off) would let my brother and I choose a day where we could do whatever we wanted and I ALWAYS chose to go downtown. Coincidentally my interest in city planning coincided with the beginning of the Columbus’ re-focus on downtown. As with many Midwestern cities downtown was the center of city’s economy, but over decades of suburbanization, neglect, and in Columbus’ sake a full-fledge dependence on automobiles; downtown was turned into a 9 to 5 wasteland of parking lots and office buildings. With the exception of a failed downtown mall it had become accepted that downtown be a place where people work, then drive home to the residential suburbs and neighborhoods to live.  In the late 1990s two things happened to drastically change this attitude.

First, Fortune 500 company - Nationwide Insurance, markedly took an interest in downtown development by proposing an arena as well as a 75-acre entertainment district surrounding it. Creating Nationwide Realty, the real-estate development arm of the company, their vision for the Arena District is practically complete 10 years after finishing construction on Nationwide Arena. Today the district is home to hundreds of apartments and condos, dozens of restaurants and bars, an 18,000 seat arena, a 10,000 seat ball park and a 4,500 seat outdoor amphitheater.

Second, in 1999, Michael Coleman was elected to his first term as mayor, in 2011 he was re-elected for his 4^th term. Coleman brought with him a renewed sense of concentrating planning and economic resources downtown. In 2002, Coleman launched a development initiative for downtown to become a mixed use center that would be home to 10,000 new housing units within 10 years.  While the lofty ambition of constructing 10,000 units has fallen short, downtown has more than doubled their housing stock and has a roughly 1,000 more under construction/planned.  A feat that is more than impressive in a national housing recession.  In fact downtown has gone through its second planning process in less than 10 years, with the completion of the 2010 Downtown Columbus Strategic Plan. 

For reference, below is a map of Downtown Columbus, the different districts/neighborhoods that are contained within the boundary and a yellow line that represents the route my dad and I took. To give you a scale of reference the area inside the downtown boundary is roughly 2.2 square miles, or the entirety of Center City Philadelphia. However, where 60,000 people live in Center City only about 6,000 live in Downtown Columbus. According to the 2010 plan, more than 25% of the land in downtown remains surface parking lots. 

Ride Along the Scioto

With my partial-nerdfest out of the way I can continue on with the ride. So as you might remember I ended last time at Confluence Park – where the Olentangy and the Scioto rivers meet.  The path crosses over a fairly nondescript bridge and continues along the Scioto River running east. 

Shortly after riding along Spring Street we entered one of the newest downtown parks – North Bank Park.  The 9 acre park is part of the larger effort to green the downtown riverfront and connect the city to the waterfront. Finished in 2005 the park was mostly funded by the State of Ohio (benefit of being the capital) and the city. The main feature is a large waterfront plaza and glass pavilion that is available for private rentals. In fact when we biked through it looked as if they were setting up for a wedding and when you have this as the back drop – it’d be my first spot too:

The rest of the park is a network of sinuous sidewalk paths that lead to a waterfront trail and through large grassy patches. Linked directly to the park is the Condos at North Bank, one of the larger residential developments within the past 10 years at 20 stories. The river bank is simply made up of limestone rocks and even herons.

Directly next to North Bank Park is the riverfront park that I remember when coming downtown with my mom during our summers. Named Battelle Riverfront Park, the park was designed in 1992 for the quincentennial of Columbus’ voyage across the Atlantic. In fact the City of Columbus was so emphatic about this celebration that someone ordered a replica of the Santa Maria to be docked here. No seriously. The Santa Maria is still there today, 20 years after the quincentennial celebrations, although it’s looking a little tired. The rest of the park takes a cue from a post-modern playbook with over-sized lights, concrete promenades and a few benches. 

As one can tell from that last picture there was no more riverfront path as the promenade under the bridges was underwater at the time of our ride. So my dad and I went up the ramp to Civic Center Drive and continued our ride through the city.  Much of the improvements that have been under construction since I left Columbus lay along Civic Center Drive. The Scioto Mile is a $40 million redesign of the promenade and civic park just to the south in honor of the city’s bicentennial, which is in 2012. Bicentennial Park’s redesign (the park was actually named for the nation’s bicentennial in 1976) will include a café, large public restrooms, bio-retention area and a large fountain. The park is scheduled to open within a month (July 2011).

Along Civic Center Drive is one of my favorite buildings in Columbus – the Ohio Judicial Center. The building was constructed in the early 1930s and is a quintessential example of an art deco public building.  Not only is the white marble building beautiful in itself its setting is breathtaking, centered in the bend of Scioto River and flanked by large public spaces.

Just south of Bicentennial Park is the area named River South. The area is under a lot of construction, mostly from streetscaping improvements but also from a few large projects including, the new Franklin County Courthouse and the Annex at River South apartments.  The Annex apartments are the brainchild of Lifestyle Communities, a developer of large suburban apartment and condo complexes.  It’s impressive what they have done at the Annex as the development conforms to the street grid and does a respectful job of covering the parking entrances to interior garages. 

After biking along uneven streets and between orange barrels we ended up in the Brewery District. As one can surmise from the name it historically was the center of beer production in Columbus. However the area is currently a mix of loft-style condos and apartments, office space and a large suburban-style Kroger(s). To the west of the Brewery District is Columbus’ newest Metro Parks. There is nothing like Metro Parks in the Philadelphia region that I can think of. Unlike the city’s parks and recreation department, Metro Parks is a regional park system that transcends municipal and county jurisdictions and is typically concerned with land conservation more than recreational space.

 Along the Whittier peninsula, Metro Parks purchased 94 acres of post industrial and warehouse space and constructed Scioto Audubon Park as a bird sanctuary and wetland reclamation area.  The park not only hosts large passive wetland areas but also a boat ramp, bike trails, dog park and a FREE outdoor rock climbing center.  The area was extremely busy when we passed by it. 

Additional to the open and recreational space the park houses the Grange Insurance Audubon Center. Opened in 2009 the center it is one of the nation’s first urban Audubon centers.  Set up on a hill overlooking the park and downtown the center evokes a modern prairie style building. A few notable design features are the landscaping around the center is full of native vegetation and is essentially a large rain gardens and the windows are covered with graphics designed to keep birds from flying into them.

After biking down a path that was closed, again due to construction, my dad and I returned to the city grid and biked north along High Street. Before turning back to the riverfront trail we passed Columbus Commons, yet ANOTHER park space recently constructed, this time on the site of the failed City Center Mall. The park is designed as a large open space bordered by developable parcels, for the time when the market rebounds.  Columbus Commons is so new that it officially opened two days after I returned to Philly. 

Even though we had to bike the trail back to our car this concludes my babbling about my hometown ride.  As evidenced by the amount I wrote about the city – more than biking itself – it is a city that’s very dear to my heart.  So in conclusion to the whole post I’ll end with an obligatory shot of the state capitol building.