Tollefson Plaza Under New Management

15 comments

• E Erik B. August 4, 2008

  Bordered by the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Tacoma Art Museum, UWT, and several retail shops and restaurants, the Chamber hopes that Tollefson Plaza will tie together a multitude of interests into one hub of activity.

  Good luck Tollefson Plaza!

  Now that Pacific Grill is opening up a space on the north side of the plaza in the Marriot, opening up the staircase a bit might permit one side to spill restaurant activity onto the Plaza.

• E Elliot August 4, 2008

  My bus passed by the ol’ triangle this morning, and there were a couple people sitting on the oversized steps talking over a couple books. It was wierd. They looked uncomfortable.

  Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, change we can believe in?

• T Thorax O'Tool August 4, 2008

  Taking back Frost park worked well, I see people there daily now, not just on Friday at noon.

  Tollefson is at a strange place, there should be plenty of foot traffic with the convention center, MOG, WA State history museum, TAM and UWT so close by.
  But there isn’t.
  It’s not just poor design with the plaza, it’s poor design with the streets as well.
  Who really feels comfortable strolling from the pedestrian-friendly UWT and near by businesses (think the Harmon) to Tollefson? Pac Ave, the light rail and all that concrete at that wide intersection are quite uncomfortable to one on foot, one tends to feel vulnerable.

  I say we ought to plan some sort of re-taking of the Plaza, it’s apparent the city can’t get it’s ass in gear. We can’t do much about the lousy pedestrian access (maybe petitions would help?), that area is designed for vehicles, not people.
  BUT we can cook up something so awesome that it’ll encourage people to come there, regardless of the poor design.

  Put on your thinking caps, people!

• K kc August 4, 2008

  I say load it up with rocking chairs.

• D David Boe August 4, 2008

  Try an experiment this weekend during the Showcase Tacoma. Mull around the area between South 15th and South 17th – and then mull between South 17th and South 19th – and determine which two blocks ‘work’ and why? I found it interesteing that the Urban Arts Festival was located along Fireman’s Park – and it had a great ‘urban’ feel to it. Would it have had the same ‘feel’ in Tollefson Plaza?

• T Thorax O'Tool August 4, 2008

  The stretch between 17th and 19th works because of several reasons. And all these are points in which the portion between 15th and 17th fail at.

  1) Pac Ave is narrow and there are cars parked. Narrow slows cars down, making those on foot feel safer. Ever walk along Schuster with the cars whizzing by at 60+? If you have, then you know what I mean about slow=feeling safe. The parked cars add several feet of metal to create a buffer of perceived safety.

  2) Buildings are tall, but not too tall (4-7 stories) and go to the edge of the sidewalks. This creates a sense of scale and place.

  3) Stuff that is interesting. Between the treed UWT campus, the museums across the street, the retail and restaurants give people some variety of things to see and to do.

  4) Cruddy parking. Wait… bad parking is good? In this context, yes it is. People often can’t park in front of their destination, and have to walk as much as a block… not too far to make them just say “forget it”, but enough to get them on their feet and see what else is there, available to them.

  That also is a reason why Fireman’s park worked well… “A” Street is narrow there and little traffic. You have a park setting as well as a view of the hyper-industrial port, re-emphasizing the urban-ness of the setting. The 185’ Russel Building, 224’ City Hall and 214’ Washington buildings nearby also dominate the horizon opposite of the port (though not adjacent to the park), adding again to the urban feeling.

  The current location of Tollefson Plaza features little of the above, combined with being a major and heavily traveled intersection. And don’t forget the light rail… it bisects the plaza in a most human-unfriendly way.
  Is it a wonder why it struggles?

• W Warren Caves August 5, 2008

  Here are my ideas for Tollefson, for what they are worth.

  Instead of big remake-overs why not just make it so people can use it. Tents are my vote. Big honking canopies that can change just like Cirque du Soleil changes with each show. Our Tacoma tent could change each year; or from spring, summer, fall, to winter. A few big big poles, cables to reposition the configuration and change the colors and patterns. Give designers a change to try their hand at a new designs, make it a competition, and there you have endless possiblities for an on going semi-weather proof location that is still outside and still a park, sort of.

  Maybe some will sell a hotdog there someday and artists will not be in danger of having the sprinklers come on in their booth area.

  www.tacomaartsupply.com/tollefson/plaza.htm

• T Thorax O'Tool August 5, 2008

  Warren, the ideas you have are great, although I am not too keen of huge cirque du soleil style canopies. Something a little less Vegas might be more appropriate. But you’re thinking on a good track.
  Only issue I see with events going on in the Plaza is that the people won’t use it as long as the space remains unfriendly.

  The remedy doesn’t have to be a wholesale redesign. These simple steps would work wonders:
  1) Take out 95% of that concrete and replace it with grass. A nice path or two and some type of garden/flower-feature (raised beds, large urn-style planters, hanging baskets for the lampposts, etc…)

  2) Trees along the Link track. A visual barrier must be established. Though the train may be “safe” it certainly doesn’t feel it with the Link clattering by so damn close. Besides, trees will also define the space, reduce noise and provide shade… which the Plaza is severely lacking. It’s far too hot there on a summer afternoon for most people.

  3) Parking. Change that turn-only lane on Pac Ave to being parallel parking. It adds a place to put your car and a perceived metal buffer between people and traffic. I still think a few small trees along Pac ave would help, but the city couldn’t make the artifacts argument along the Link line.

  And finally, put some kind of food establishment on the Marriott edge of the plaza… empty storefronts do not encourage people to hang around.

  While above recommendations won’t necessarily cure the plaza, they give the patient an actual fighting chance… like a dump truck full of penicillin.
  AND These are all cheap, I bet the city could do them all for less than $1 million (you know how city council involvement tends to spawn bloat). If it were a private company, it could be under $100K… pennies compared to a complete overhaul!

  Now imagine your events and canopies in the cool grass, with the shade of trees to help ward off the hot August Sun… cars parked nearby with people getting out to enjoy the day, instead of speeding by, hoping to make that light.
  That, I think is more like what Tollefson deserves.

• M Mofo from the Hood August 5, 2008

  Pretty amazing that such an ideal set-up as Tollefson Plaza doesn’t have even one GIANT chess set with a board painted on the concrete.

  I’ve only seen them in movies but when they’re shown, there’s people playing the game.

• T Thorax O'Tool August 6, 2008

  Mofo… I actually drew up plans for one.
  It’s 8 ft by 8 ft, with 1 sq ft squares. I was bored one night and cranked it out during the wee hours on a caffeine buzz.

  The frame is 2×4s with 2 each cross-braces running perpendicular at the 4 foot marks. The sub-surface is 2 each sheets of OSB, and my white and black squares are made of UHMW (Ultra-High Molecular Weight) poly… and all these can be purchased locally! The board remains stationary with the use of magnets and 8” nails… the nails being driven into the expansion joints in the concrete, the magnets attached to the frame.

  Then the pieces could be made from paper mache, coated with a latex paint and then coated in spray-on urethane, weighted down with about 10 lb of sand (enough to resist most common wind speeds, but not too heavy to move). A similar magnet system with magnets in the bottom of the pieces and in the squares of the board will keep the pieces in place.

  I have the plans on my drafting board, if anyone wants to help make this happen, that would be AWESOME!
  It requires saws, space (neither which I have in the ol’ apartment) and of course, $$$. The UHMW is impervious to our weather, but isn’t cheap. Plastic Supply (down on Center, near the Humane Society) charges by the pound, and UHMW is as dense as water. Thus a cubic foot of that stuff weighs about 60 lbs. And 1” thick by 8’ by 8’ is 5.3 cu feet of plastic… Ain’t cheap.

  Anyone want to help? I’ll gladly share the plans.

• D David Boe August 6, 2008

  Dear Thorax, check out Tollefson in Wonderland – it has all of those items you mentioned to ‘soften’ the hard-edge of the plaza. I mean – you just have to laugh – when you read a memo by the City Manager explaining to a developer why parking lots must have 15% of the interior parking surface landscaped with shade trees to reduce global warming – and then there is the Tollefson Desert where you could fry an egg even on an overcast day.

• J jamie from thriceallamerican August 6, 2008

  Once the ginormous chess set is in effect, maybe we can paint or embed a labyrinth pattern in part of the plaza (upper area?)…a contemplative urban retreat…

• D drizell August 6, 2008

  I think it really says a lot about Tollefson Plaza when even the homeless refuse to go there. The neighbhorhood was ten times more exciting before all the old buildings were torn down and Tacoma Rescue Mission catered to hundreds of people every day.

  Other cities judge the success of a public space by the people that use it. When I was in planning school, we examined a park in downtown Ann Arbor. This particular space had all the right ingredients to be successful: high density housing, good transit access, retail, and building on four sides, the hallmarks of a thriving city. The park, however, was only used by homeless people and the occasional skateboarder, but at least it was being used by somebody for something. Tollefson Plaza is an eyesore even for the down and out.

  It’s all about the design of the space. The Chamber of Commerce can throw all the money it wants to at Tollefson Plaza, but until the physical design is actually changed such as something suggested by David Boe, it will be wasted money.

• J J. Cote August 7, 2008

  Canopies have been mentioned as an idea that will bring shade and provide cover from the rain. How about using “God’s canopy”? Trees. Construct concrete planter boxes in different shapes and sizes, but large enough to support small Maples, Elm and Flowering Cherry. They could be placed in various places throughout the Plaza. They could also be designed with attached benches for the “huddled masses yearning” to sit upon and make their yearning a bit easier.
  The cost would be slight and picked up by the neighborhood association for that region. The trees and flowers could be maintained by the same crew that already does the beautiful hanging baskets.
  I don’t know what else it could use besides something attractive. But, don’t attractive things attract by nature?

• A altered chords August 7, 2008

  Trees would be fantastic. Benches too. The concrete bleacher style seeting is ok for about 10 seconds.

  In addition to trees we DO need protection from the rain. Let’s face reality, the weather is nice here about 90 days per year. The rest of the time it’s drizzling.

  Nobody’s going to come to a (fill in the blank) exibit if it means standing in the rain.

  It’s a great space for live music but nobody will play in the rain. It ruins the instruments (violins, electronics etc.)

  Let’s get some grass too. (the type you sit on)

  And yes, listen to the advice of experts like David Boe.

  I’m having trouble understanding why he is not being sought out by the Chamber. Maybe he is?