Northview residents and Manhattan community members saw visions of a possible future for the neighborhood Wednesday, the culmination of a semester of work by multiple teams of Kansas State students.
Landscape architecture students presented proposed designs for a host of infrastructure and public amenity projects at the latest virtual Neighborhood Night event on May 5. The event was co-hosted by neighborhood advocacy group Northview Rising (NVR), which has worked with Northview-focused faculty and students from the College of Architecture, Planning and Design’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning on projects since 2020.
“We’re really hoping to bring out the potential that the neighborhood has and really show the needs and desires of the community,” says student Suzanne Sharp. “That’s really been our goal.”
Students enrolled in Frank Hammond’s community engagement studio course, LAR 646, were divided into four teams focusing their work on four different areas of interest identified through repeated community engagement: the Casement Corridor, Dix and Casement Community Park, Northview Greenway and Powerline Trail.
The project builds upon the prior semester’s work and goals, formalized as the Northview Now initiative, though with a particular emphasis on smaller scale ideas than were identified in prior classes.
“We really got out there. The students walked quite a bit – they fliered, they walked Northview, they learned where connectivity issues were, they rode the bus and learned how hard it was to ride the bus to get to the grocery store, they biked and were scared for their lives,” Hammond says. “So I feel like they really became like one with the community much more so than last year, so that made for better projects.”
Each focus area came with numerous proposals. Proposed projects from the Casement Corridor team ranged from widening the sidewalk along Casement Road to also include a bike lane to an upgraded Linear Trail node with new seating, a bike repair station and signage to signify the entrance to Northview. Group members include Sam Coup, John Kalamaja, Dylan Ramage and Sam Wolkey.
A widened sidewalk along Casement Road past the Allen Road intersection is envisioned to support pedestrian and bicycle traffic. (Courtesy of KSU APDesign LARCP, LAR 646 Spring 2021)
Amenities including bicycle repair equipment, seating and devoted space for pedestrians are envisioned at the Linear Trail node. (Courtesy of KSU APDesign LARCP, LAR 646 Spring 2021)
The Dix and Casement Community Park team presented a two-phase proposal to develop the 100 Dix Drive lot, already zoned and planned for Parks and Recreation use by the City of Manhattan. The first proposed phase features a nature play space, seating amenities and gravel trails throughout the park. A proposed second phase would transform those trails to concrete, a central pergola shade structure and space for a community garden in the city’s most food insecure neighborhood. Group members include Katherine Herrera, Caleb Payne, Anna Rader and Suzanne Sharp who have also launched a community petition to name the park and ask Manhattan to support its development.
Students proposed a two-phase development in their Dix and Casement Community Park plans. (Courtesy of KSU APDesign LARCP, LAR 646 Spring 2021)
A space for a community garden is pictured in the students’ concept imagery for the park. (Courtesy of KSU APDesign LARCP, LAR 646 Spring 2021)
The Northview Greenway proposals would sport a multitude of new native plant features and foliage to in-part address water pooling and drainage issues that exist on the current path north of Northview Elementary School and Manhattan Baptist Church. Plans feature numerous quality-of-life improvements such as periodic seating and rest stops, a widened path with more defined entrance and exit points, as well as permanent outdoor exercise equipment. Group members include Oscar Hernandez, McKayla Lynch, John Thomas and Anna Vialle.
Students envisioned an accessible community feature dotted with pocket parks, native plants, a community garden and recreation amenities in their proposals. (Courtesy of KSU APDesign LARCP, LAR 646 Spring 2021)
The final group focused on the Powerline Trail running diagonally through the neighborhood from Northview Park to Northeast Community Park. Team members identified a long-term goal of integrating the trail into the Linear Trail system and filling existing gaps in Northview, of which three exist: one at the north side near Northview Elementary and Prairie Glen Townhouses, where the trail meets Casement Road, and one at the south side near Lilac Lane and NECP.
Group members Nicole Beard, Chloe Gilespie, Emily Siler and Shaedon Wedel also proposed new foliage, seating and entrance amenities to beautify the trail, and also created some waves around their proposals with a small-scale project that caught a lot of attention: painting the new Lilac Lane Powerline Pole Mural. Sporting a floral paintjob and planters inside as well, students were joined by residents in making the mural a reality.
Nicole Beard, Chloe Gilespie, Emily Siler and Shaedon Wedel were joined by residents and community members in the creation of the Lilac Lane Powerline Pole Mural. (Courtesy of KSU APDesign LARCP, LAR 646 Spring 2021)
“Something that was expressed was how important it was to include the name of the street on the mural for the residents,” Shaedon Wedel says. “So Lilac Lane was included on the mural as well.”
In addition to feedback received in the field, the proposals were well received at Wednesday’s Neighborhood Night. Manhattan City Commissioner and Northview resident Linda Morse told the involved students that their passion was apparent in their work.
“It’s not often that Northview gets this kind of attention, so we’ve enjoyed it,” Morse says. “We’ll look for some positive outcomes from all of your suggestions.”
NVR working group member Dr. Doug Benson, who assisted students by offering up his yard as a site for tabling and community engagement, commended their work. Benson also says that the Lilac Lane mural, visible from inside his home, has had a transformational effect already.
“I’ve been standing here at my computer looking out the window at the concrete structure at the base of the power pole,” Benson says. “There’s nobody there now, there have been people walking by, standing there and talking with each other. I haven’t seen that happen in 40 years.”
Fellow NVR working group member Dominique Saunders says she was impressed by the students’ work, noting the value of having next steps and realistic phasing included in their plans and proposals.
“I think that’s really vital,” says Saunders. “They seemed to capture the input that they were able to get. I think the continued struggle will just be managing expectations within the community and finding ways to – even if it’s in a tiered approach – to start to actualize some of those plans.”
Saunders adds that the cost of the proposals – not identified or calculated in the process – could be a barrier to their feasibility.
“That could radically shift especially if were to really push the city and get them to buy in to what equity really looks like within the broader community,” Saunders says. “And, of course, there’s always a lot of competing priorities – that’s the case in any community, and certainly Manhattan is not an exception.”
While the class will ultimately turn over and a new group will enroll to build upon the work of prior semesters, the Spring 2021 crew says they plan to continue carrying their work forward in the meantime. The students have been in contact with City of Manhattan Parks and Recreation planners and other officials to share their designs and plans in hopes that they can become a reality.
“Our group also is very cognizant of the fact that we are only here for a semester, so we are also hoping to make that proposal [to the city] ourselves; since we do already have the graphics, it would just be a matter of creating a document and then sending it to Alfonso [Leyva, Manhattan park planner] since we do already have that contact,” says Nicole Beard.
“While this semester is coming to a conclusion, we understand the importance of carrying those things through and we will most likely be moving forward with that ourselves so we can continue to make sure our work is left in the correct stance.”
To see the full presentation or learn more about the project, you can reach the teams at KStateNorthview21@gmail.com. More information on prior work by LARCP students is available at northviewnow.wixsite.com/nvnow.
Students petition regarding Dix and Casement Community Park is located at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd50N7u3Xc_wj8Y4nSoE_9MS6qMTYjieC4xBYkivqlox0hW3w/viewform
Originally posted at https://northviewnotable.substack.com/p/new-view-of-northview
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