17 students in the Environmental Design Practicum course took on a special project in Blanchard, as part of partnership between the City of Blanchard, Oklahoma Municipal League, and Institute for Quality Communities.
After several weeks of studying street design concepts and ideas about how to demonstrate potential improvements through tactical urbanism, students were ready to look in detail at Blanchard.
On February 8, the class traveled to Blanchard for a meeting with local civic leaders, city officials, and stakeholders. After the meeting, they split up to walk along the street interviewing business owners. Finally, teams collected measurements, photographs, and data about Main Street and the surrounding blocks.
Students discussed the most important topics from the site visit in order to think about what their projects should address: Making downtown a place where people want to spend time, keeping downtown a good place to accommodate events, and making key intersections more safe for traffic and pedestrians.
After discussing the site, five teams were ready to present design proposals to city officials for review. City manager Robert Floyd, assistant city manager Daniel Ofsthun, city planner Ryan Conner, and parks director Chris Wittenbach provided excellent comments to refine the proposals as the teams prepared to devise ways to test design strategies.
Two weeks later, students returned to Blanchard armed with prepared projects and supplies for assembling their projects in the street. Using temporary materials to demonstrate the projects allowed the students to explain their work to a group of stakeholders while evaluating how it worked for regular users of the street.
Students meet with civic leaders about downtown Blanchard.
Bradley Anderson, Phoo Thant Sin Aung, and Colt Looper installed traffic calming curb extensions and a creative crosswalk at an important gateway to the downtown section of Main Street.
Stephanie Boothe, Armani Frye, and Shawndale Pina noticed a blank wall facing an important festival space, and showed off an idea for a new mural.
Athena Black, Cassidy Middleton, Isabelle Preston, and Daniel Woodruff used cones to test the right size for a roundabout or mini-circle around Blanchard’s signature flagpole.
Jennifer Connett, Bethany Grissom, and Audrey Yu created parklets in “dead space” near intersections to make room for seating and activities while reducing crosswalk distances.
Emily Carter, Sephra Kolker, Marshall Stringer, and Brendan Summerville were inspired by Candy Chang to demonstrate an interactive public art project that could soften a blank wall and allow Blanchard residents to participate.