Beacon of Rebirth @ Utica Junction
Vision of the Utica Junction
The pavilion at Utica Junction is intended to create a central gathering place for the city of Roseville. This proposed pavilion includes a large flexible indoor open space on the ground floor, where people can access freely, share interests with others, and express themselves. Public arts within the pavilion will reflect local history and culture and define the building as a special place for the community. The pavilion will become a focal point of the future Utica Junction and serves as the beacon of the rebirth of the downtown Roseville.
Cost, Volume, and Flexibility – Architectural Program Considerations
The design of the Pavilion is driven by the idea of providing maximum building volume and flexibility while keeping construction cost within a reasonable range. The pavilion employs prefabricated shipping containers, which are arranged parallel to the Utica Road. 20’/ 40’ container module fits perfectly with surrounding historical context and creates well-articulated and playful building façade.
Separate roof structures are placed on top of containers and spans between them to create publicly accessible indoor open space. This space can be used as one large room for neighborhood gathering events or divided into smaller rooms by movable dividers. Small rooms will be suitable for various daily activities including local artist exhibition, senior education, after school classes for small children and so on. All administrative functions and smaller office spaces are accommodated the on the second floor, so that ground floor will be completely open to public uses.
Containers will be furnished various large openings, such as full height folding hunger doors, transparent sliding doors and so on. These openings allow establishing a seamless connection between interior space and the Utica Road. Indoor activities can be seen from the street and eventually will spill over into the public realm.
Neighborhood Fabric, Connectivity, and Compatibility – Urban Design Considerations
The image of Utica Road today is rather fragmented and auto-oriented due to large building setback, seas of parking spaces and excessive street width. First of all, to make Utica Road pedestrian-friendly, public right of way needs to be re-configured with tighter driving lanes, additional street parking, and bike lanes. Street parking and bike lanes will serve as buffer space between automobile and pedestrian and enhance the image of the walkable downtown street. In addition, a number of curb cuts should be minimized by sharing driveway by multiple merchants. Second, the Utica Road needs strong street wall definition to create a sense of enclosure. Surface parking spaces will be screened by temporary retail structures – same shipping containers used for the pavilion (to be replaced by permanent structures in the long run). They work double as to establish coherent district identity by applying same design vocabulary.
The proposed pavilion should be placed with minimum (or zero) set back from the public right of way for the same reason. This also allows alleviating land use compatibility issue with the residential neighborhood to the east. There is landscape zone along the back wall, which provides an additional buffer between a residential neighborhood and Utica Road.
Vision of the Utica Junction
The pavilion at Utica Junction is intended to create a central gathering place for the city of Roseville. This proposed pavilion includes a large flexible indoor open space on the ground floor, where people can access freely, share interests with others, and express themselves. Public arts within the pavilion will reflect local history and culture and define the building as a special place for the community. The pavilion will become a focal point of the future Utica Junction and serves as the beacon of the rebirth of the downtown Roseville.
Cost, Volume, and Flexibility – Architectural Program Considerations
The design of the Pavilion is driven by the idea of providing maximum building volume and flexibility while keeping construction cost within a reasonable range. The pavilion employs prefabricated shipping containers, which are arranged parallel to the Utica Road. 20’/ 40’ container module fits perfectly with surrounding historical context and creates well-articulated and playful building façade.
Separate roof structures are placed on top of containers and spans between them to create publicly accessible indoor open space. This space can be used as one large room for neighborhood gathering events or divided into smaller rooms by movable dividers. Small rooms will be suitable for various daily activities including local artist exhibition, senior education, after school classes for small children and so on. All administrative functions and smaller office spaces are accommodated the on the second floor, so that ground floor will be completely open to public uses.
Containers will be furnished various large openings, such as full height folding hunger doors, transparent sliding doors and so on. These openings allow establishing a seamless connection between interior space and the Utica Road. Indoor activities can be seen from the street and eventually will spill over into the public realm.
Neighborhood Fabric, Connectivity, and Compatibility – Urban Design Considerations
The image of Utica Road today is rather fragmented and auto-oriented due to large building setback, seas of parking spaces and excessive street width. First of all, to make Utica Road pedestrian-friendly, public right of way needs to be re-configured with tighter driving lanes, additional street parking, and bike lanes. Street parking and bike lanes will serve as buffer space between automobile and pedestrian and enhance the image of the walkable downtown street. In addition, a number of curb cuts should be minimized by sharing driveway by multiple merchants. Second, the Utica Road needs strong street wall definition to create a sense of enclosure. Surface parking spaces will be screened by temporary retail structures – same shipping containers used for the pavilion (to be replaced by permanent structures in the long run). They work double as to establish coherent district identity by applying same design vocabulary.
The proposed pavilion should be placed with minimum (or zero) set back from the public right of way for the same reason. This also allows alleviating land use compatibility issue with the residential neighborhood to the east. There is landscape zone along the back wall, which provides an additional buffer between a residential neighborhood and Utica Road.