By Anna Skinner
As is to be expected, members of the public sat shoulder-to-shoulder and even clustered in crowds in the back of Westfield City Hall Jan. 7 to hear the final design plans on Grand Junction Plaza.
City employees, David Rubin of Land Collective, Matthias Hollwich of HWKN and Cristian Ordonez of Bruce Mau Design all presented different aspects of project.
Jim Ake, Westfield City Council vice president, introduced the meeting and brought the public back into the past as he recounted the original steps of the project.
“It’s an amazing time for Westfield,” Ake said “I’m excited to see the combination of (Grand Junction Task Force’s) countless volunteer hours of work being realized.”
Multiple renderings of different angles and aspects of the plaza were displayed, as well as 3D models of two of the buildings to be constructed and samples of Indiana limestone which will be used heavily during construction.
Rubin was the first to present the plans, and he brought together an image for the city about the reasoning behind the idea of Grand Junction Plaza – to unite downtown where the Westfield trails join together and to design a floodplain to embrace storm water and engage in the land.
“We are trying to bring back that historic aspect (of Westfield) but in a contemporary notion,” Rubin said.
In addition to the presentation on flooding and reconstructing the land, Rubin highlighted the different amenities that would appear with the completion of Grand Junction Plaza.
The Jersey Plaza with a café pavilion, great lawn, wetlands amphitheater, stage pavilion, trailhead pavilion and meadow were the main components listed.
“It will be a joyful place where wintertime programing and summer programing can take place,” Rubin said of Jersey Plaza, listing outdoor dining, parking, island seating, an ice rink, jet fountains, a plaza terrace overlook, fire pit and cascading water feature.
Many characteristics of Indiana will be implemented into the park, such as prairie grasses with strategically mown pathways and the use of limestone in construction.
Two bridges will cross the wetlands, and boardwalks will run under the bridges.
Hollwich, a European architect with HWKN, also presented.
He explained the “rough edge” look of the limestone will be connected with buildings such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center in New York City.
“We want to create something nobody has ever seen before,” he said. “So we came up with a new façade idea that is entirely different but uses Indiana limestone.”
Hollwich described the main style of the buildings’ construction as having a playful appearance.
Ordonez presented on the variety of logos used to promote the plaza and different events to take place there, such as farmers markets, movies or performances.
A full video of the presentation can be found on westfield.in.gov.
Questions from the audience
After the final design presentation at Westfield City Hall on Jan. 7, the audience asked few questions that team members and city employees answered.
Q: What will be built first?
A: Rubin answered all questions, and explained that the Mill Street reconstruction will be done first to shape the plaza and to act as a levy to assist with any flooding to occur.
Q: Where will all the visitors park when there are events at the plaza that will bring higher traffic?
A: By the time Grand Junction is complete and hosting events, Rubin said that he believed and hoped sufficient parking structures would be available. With bike locks being constructed, visitors could also ride bikes instead of driving.
Q: How will the city pay for the $25 million project?
A: Chief of Staff Todd Burtron explained that the city has not funded the project yet, but he assured the crowd that they would be conservative with funding and focus on parts of the plaza at a time instead of the whole all at once.
