With an eye on the future, the residents of Salado, Texas invited Texas A&M Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning students to propose some possible future concepts for revitalizing the downtown and park areas of their village. As part of their course work, the students hosted town hall meetings during which they had the opportunity to hear from the citizens what they believed to be top priorities should funds become available for improvements. The students then took this information back to campus and divided into teams to target specific challenges such as parking availability, pedestrian and bicycle access, encouraging residential use of natural areas such as Salado Creek, and improving public facilities for festivals. Now that the students had their concepts on paper so to speak, it was time to present them to the residents of Salado.
Mayor Skip Blancett addresses meeting.
Friday, May 1st, was the big reveal. Many residents attended the session opened by Mayor Skip Blancett who praised the students for their hard work by telling them, “You are sparking our creativity!” Village Administrator, Kim Foutz, added her kudos as well telling the students that Salado is “a small town with big dreams.” She told the citizens that the best way to proceed is to “know the priorities of the community and be strategic in how we spend our resources.”
Professors Michael Teal and Russell Reid explained the process. The students were divided into six teams with four to five students per team. The students then researched the entire area to see how each piece would fit into the larger plan. Some students even made return visits to Salado on their own time to get a deeper understanding of the Salado culture. The students were allowed free rein. They were told to just put pen on the paper and generate ideas. Every idea started off as good one and then became better with fine-tuning. As each team presented their plans, major concepts emerged: pedestrian safety, communal spaces, way-finding improvements, banners for beautification/advertising, and connectivity.
Texas A&M Student Downtown Salado Concepts
Those citizens in attendance were very responsive to the presentations and engaged the students in several question and answer sessions. After the demonstration ended, the students left the presentation boards behind for public viewing and the electronic presentation is available through the Village Municipal Office.
Next steps include a few more town hall sessions so Saladoans can comprise a plan for moving forward.
For more information, contact:
Kim Foutz, Village Administrator, kfoutz@saladotx.gov .
Professor Russell Reid, Texas A&M University, rreid@arch.tamu.edu .
Professor Michael Teal, Texas A&M University, tealdesign@wicksonwireless.com .