There is a proposal afloat to redo the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, which is just south of downtown Dayton, next to Miami Valley Hospital. 

 

 

The plan really sucks, proposing suburban style spec offices and parking along Stewart, plus a ice arena and a bunch of horse show barns…..so I was thinking what could be redone with the Fairgrounds, as a “new urbanist” infill design combined with an urban park design on the hill itself.

 

Here is a site analyses and schematic cross section.  What I do is keep the hill as a park and the two oldest structures..the Round House and the “Antique Mall”, develop the lower areas as housing as an extension of the Fairgrounds Neighborhood., and Stewart Street as a commercial corridor.

 

 

 

Overlaying the new neighborhood over the Fairgrounds.  Just basic stuff suggested by existing conditions.  The housing could have less streets.  The fun part is developing that park, and the Main/Stewart boundaries

 

 

More detail.  I see the Main/Stewart intersection as sort of a gateway feature of sorts, or as a landmark spatial event or node, telling you you are in the city (borrowing from some of Kevin Lynches concepts).  The park/hill could be enhanced with an artificial mound with a folly or gazebo on top (think the Temple of Love in Mount Storm Park).  and I see a belvedere overlooking the city from the top of the hill.

 

 

Real life examples of what you see in the plan., for residential.  The idea is to mix single family with apartments.

 

 

Then looking at this from a neighborhood perspective.  This hasn’t been thought out too well. You can see that old railroad grade turned into a greenway/bikeway connecting inland from the river, and maybe a different way for Miami Valley Hospital to expand.

 

 

Another look at the Stewart Street Square.  You could have some neighborhood retail worked into the ground floors of these big office/institutional buildings, which could be developed like big factory buildings (which was there originally during the NCR era).  The corners and facades could be articulated with towers, to enhance the landmark character, or one could be larger than the others, like the “Coyote” in Wicker Park.  The idea is to develop Stewart into a more urban space.

 

 

 

And the belvedere.  The inspiration here is Parc Guell and some places I’ve seen in Germany….or some of the Cincy parks overlooking the basin.

 

 

 

The actual county fair could be relocated to a new fairgrounds in, say, Brookville or New Lebanon (which could be a fun design problem in its own right).

 

 

 

 

    I have to wonder what you do for work, if you do this stuff for fun.

 

  Thanks again.

^

If i did this for work it wouldn't be fun to do it for recreation.  Busman's Holiday.

 

I think most hobbys are 180 degrees from what one does at work.  I think of the Montogomery County head adminstrator who used to play guitar in a local rock band, or the poet William Carlos Williams, who was a famliy doctor and did poetry on the side (tho WCW was serious poet, not a hobbyist). 

 

I usually don't post stuff like this, but there was a discussion on this at the Dayton blogs, so I posted it (and linked it) to illustrate an alternative plan, as a contribution to the discussion.

 

 

 

Great plan!

Good looking presentation!  :mrgreen:

now if only i was jean-luc picard so i could "make it so"

Bump....

 

 

Why? Recently heard rumors again that the Fairgrounds might move to Brookville. And this would be great if it could happen!

... and the article to support this statement:

 

http://www.whiotv.com/news/news/local/sale-of-montgomery-co-fairgrounds-discussed/nY9d9/

My alma mater needs a new basketball arena closer to the heart of campus. ;)

Actually, the "heart of campus" these days is moving towards that basketball arena.

And here we are a brief 7 years later...it may actually happen

 

 

 

Does MVH own the land now?

^Actually, Miller-Valentine would pay somewhere between $16 mil - $18 mil for the site.

 

And to answer the question - not yet...

The Fair board voted tonight on whether or not to sell the site and move to Brookville. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they make the move to Brookville and open this up for a cool urban development, but we will see what happens I guess.

 

The new site is actually quite nice and well-placed, right at the NW corner of the I-70 / Arlington Rd. interchange in the business park with the Payless Shores DC. It's 66 acres, and it has interstate visibility, access to the bike trail, and a nice pond.

 

The sale has been approved.

 

I am concerned this will just suck investment, activity, and energy from downtown.

It definitely could. But the sale had to happen... that fairgrounds site was severely out of date, and there is a lot of development potential there.

 

My guess at what will happen at the site is office along Stewart (hopefully stuff that is new and builds off the presence of the GE EPISCenter and UDRI), residential (likely Simms and Oberer developed townhomes) in the middle, and MVH will buy rights to the northern reaches. And I'd be willing to bet the vegetation buffer along Patterson stays to isolate the new residential. This will put MVH in direct conflict with any historic building preservation at the Fairgrounds site.

 

But I hope that I am wrong and the plan looks more like the one Jeff posted. The only modification I would make to Jeff's plan personally is higher density residential along Apple St. so the Salvation Army and FHA piano buildings across the street would be more likely to have a loft conversions happen to them in the future.

Miller Valentine is building a pretty good urbanist portfolio.  Wishing Dayton the best.