Downtown Plaza Construction

On May 21, 2024, City Council unanimously voted to accept a $12 million grant from the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to fully fund the Downtown Plaza's construction. This grant will primarily be used towards Phase 2 construction costs and engineering services.

Phase 2 of the Downtown Plaza consists of several components:

• Surface Parking Lot. The surface parking lot at Neil and Washington will be transformed into a public plaza accessible to people of all ages and lifestyles. Raised planter beds with integrated seating include shade trees to provide canopy and cool the space. A pop jet fountain would occupy the center of the plaza, enclosed by two small business kiosks and a public lawn. The two kiosks will host local start-up retailers allowing them to showcase their products. The public lawn would feature grass for lounging, picnics, and public programming. Bench swing seating, movable seating beneath trees, and nature play structures for children would surround these features. Tall canopy trees would be planted along Neil to shade pedestrians, allow views of businesses on the plaza, and separate the plaza space from traffic on Neil Street. Bicycle parking would be added along Neil and Washington to accommodate active transportation.
  A rendering of the downtown plaza public lawn

  
  

• Shared Street. A single southbound shared vehicle/pedestrian lane along building fronts on the historic Hickory Street Right of Way will provide access for cars from Washington Street. The shared lane is curbless and demarcated with bollards to prevent vehicles from entering the main plaza areas. The lane allows for ADA accessible parking in front of businesses, while also facilitating special event set-up. Access to this lane would be controlled so the entire space could close to automobile traffic. Because it is curbless, or at-grade with the plaza, pedestrians would not need to negotiate curbs or ramps when using the area, improving accessibility. Design features are being considered (shown as transparent panels below) to illustrate Champaign history.
  A rendering of the curbless street, with panels that could showcase local culture and history

  
  

• Lot South of Orpheum. The lot south of The Orpheum Theater will provide access to the public parking lot on Fremont Street and in the public parking lot at Walnut and Washington Streets. This entrance to the plaza will accommodate art, shade structures, seating and, plantings. It could also be used as a space for smaller events. It will provide a welcoming gateway to the plaza and nearby businesses.
• Traffic Interventions.Funding will also allow for partial reconstruction of the streets adjacent to the Downtown Plaza – Phase 2. Washington Street and Neil Street will include additional on-street parking spaces. The intersection of Hill and Neil Streets will be reconstructed as a raised intersection or speed table, which will extend the main pedestrian entrance into the Downtown Plaza to the west side of Hill Street. This will improve access to the Hill Street Parking Deck and the planned future hotel. This design ensures that pedestrians are not required to find a ramp or step down from a curb to cross Neil Street into the plaza. It will also force traffic to slow down when entering Downtown.
  A rendering of the full Downtown Plaza, facing south from Neil and Washington

  
  

For more information on this project, please view the Report to Council (CB 2024-078) or a recording (video) of the May 21, 2024 regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

The City of Champaign, in partnership with consultants MKSK and Clark Dietz, has completed construction engineering for Phase 1 of the Downtown Plaza (also known as Immediate Phase in the Neil Street Plaza Placemaking Plan). This phase of the project encompasses the existing One Main Plaza with a slight expansion northward. It will install a performance stage equipped with power and wiring for sound and lighting equipment. These improvements will better accommodate live events like Friday Night Live and the Parade of Lights, and the 'plug-n-play' capability of the stage facilitates its use and reduces the number of logistical tasks associated with events in downtown.

These improvements aim to attract more visitors, diversify the activities that can be held in the space, and improve the everyday experiences of pedestrians downtown. Phase 1 of the plaza includes planters that delineate outdoor cafe seating from pedestrian through-zones; these planters include two-tiers of seating to accommodate users at special events or throughout the day. Bench swings and landscaping along the west side of the plaza will provide a sense of enclosure, screening the area from traffic while improving visibility to business frontages. The plaza's design prioritizes accessibility, ensuring wheelchair users and those with mobility limitations can comfortably use the space. Belonging-centered design features include designated spaces along the planters' seat walls and adjacent to bench swings for wheelchair users, seating with arms to assist in standing, and an ADA accessible ramp to the stage.

On February 20, 2024, City Council accepted a $500,000 grant from the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. This grant used a competitive application process to channel federal COVID relief dollars to localities around Illinois. Champaign's grant application cited the pandemic's negative and outsized effect on restaurant and hospitality businesses downtown, many of which are locally owned. These grant dollars will be used to help fund Phase 1 construction of the Downtown Plaza on the northeast corner of Main Street and Neil Street.

See the Council Bill and staff report HERE and links to media coverage below.

• Meeting Minutes & More - Neil Street Plaza project ready to roll. News-Gazette 2/23/2024.
• Champaign Council to vote on using $500K grant for downtown reconstruction. WCIA 2/20/24.

The Downtown Plaza's location at Neil and Washington Streets is the heart of downtown. The current day driving aisle on the parking lot's eastern side, fronting businesses, used to be Hickory Street. This street featured a series of ‘flatiron-style' buildings along Neil Street. The intersection of Neil, Main, Church, and formerly Hickory Street has been a gathering spot since the founding of Champaign. Patrons would originally bring horses to drink from the well located in One Main Plaza after conducting business. By 1972, these buildings had been razed to accommodate a parking lot, in an effort to attract suburban consumers away from Marketplace Mall and back to downtown. Today, the approximately two-acre site remains a metered, city-owned parking lot, except for a small plaza and outdoor dining space on the southern portion of the site.

The heart of the parking lot, a triangular block was a vibrant part of Downtown Champaign and contained the original home of the Champaign News-Gazette on its southern tip and the Downtown Farmer Market on its northern tip bordering Washington Street. Though both iconic structures, as well as the remainder of the block, were demolished (News-Gazette 1969, Market – 1920s), what is important to remember is that this place was an iconic center of activity in Downtown Champaign. As streetcars waned and the automobile gained prominence, this block was converted to a parking lot to service Sears Roebuck Company, which consequently vacated its space on Hickory Street shortly after the parking lot was created. The historic Orpheum Theatre (now Orpheum Children’s Museum) still exists, as does most of the historic fabric on the east side of the former Hickory Street right-of-way. The southern tip was redeveloped in the early 2000’s where the One Main development exists today.

While Downtown Champaign has seen a renaissance in the last 30 years, it suffered large economic declines in the 1970s-1990s until the City partnered with businesses and non-profits to support the preservation, restoration, and repurposing of historic buildings such as the Orpheum Theatre. The legacy of the built environment and the quality of infill in Downtown Champaign and bordering this site is a testament to the work of the City and its partners in preserving an important place for future generations. A few buildings and site features such as the temperance fountain (well) downtown remain as reminders of the past.

Additional historical resources:

• For historical pictures of this space, see page 10 of the Neil Street Plaza Placemaking Plan.
• The City of Champaign maintains an interactive map of historical aerial photography HERE.
• For history on downtown buildings, see champaignhistory.com.
• The Urbana Free Library's historical photo collection HERE and the Champaign County History Museum HERE.
• City Directories of local businesses throughout the 1900s are stored in searchable formats HERE.

Urban plazas promote walkability, increase resident happiness, and garner foot traffic for nearby businesses. The Downtown Plaza will provide a sense of place and cultivate community pride. As designed, the plaza dedicates space to play, exercise, and relax near greenery. Natural landscaping and trees in this plaza will help reduce surface temperatures, providing visitor respite from the beating sun. The plaza invites passersby to sit and stay, enhancing the public realm and increasing safety through the number of eyes on the street. It provides space for residents from different neighborhoods to socialize and interact, enhancing our city's social cohesion and sense of belonging. As an attractive infrastructure amenity, it can increase nearby property values which benefits the city through greater tax revenues.

Plazas and parks in downtown areas have been shown to positively influence public health, the local economy, and the natural environment. Below are some popular media sources for further reading.

• Article: City Life is Too Lonely. Urban Planning Can Help. (Bloomberg, 12/14/23)
• Article: Teen Girls Need Better Public Spaces to Hang Out (Bloomberg, 5/28/21)
• Article: Examining the holistic impacts of public space investments in three cities (Brookings, 7/27/21)
• Article: Ten social benefits of walkable places (Congress for the New Urbanism, 8/12/21)
• Video: Did pedestrian malls ruin U.S. downtowns? (City Beautiful, 10/24/19)
• Video: How public spaces make cities work (Amanda Burden Ted Talk, 4/7/14)

The above image is a design framework from the Project for Public Spaces.