Littlefield Downtown Building Survey and Redevelopment Plan

2002 Fall-2003 Spring: ARCH Studio 5605/Service Learning ($6,000)

Project Manager/Principal Investigator:

Students:

Client:

City of Littlefield, Texas

Project Description:

With a population of 6,000 residents Littlefield is struggling with the prospect of widespread vacancy and neglect in the Phelps Avenue district, the core of Littlefield's historic downtown. The new CDL plan emphasized the rediscovery of downtown Littlefield through community based projects that included the development of a heritage park, a recognizable gateway announcing the downtown area to passing motorists that now tend to bypass the area, and the location of a veteran memorial in a newly created civic plaza area that accentuated the cohesion of county courthouse, library, and city government as a town center.

United by a public park and town square the design links the future prosperity of the downtown area to increased densification and concentrated investment in key landmarks and public nodes that will instill a new relevance to the existing built context as a desirable and profitable place for new growth and reinvestment. Research activities included site mapping, building survey, and documentation of existing building conditions of an eight block portion of Phelps Avenue, Littlefield's primary historic corridor. This work was phase one of an extended, funded joint assistance project in collaboration with The Office of Economic Development.

For Phase 1 students documented the existing streetscape building by building creating a photographic data base, scale plans of street and buildings, and an accompanying written description of each building determining building use, building condition, aesthetic contribution, and building type. This data was organized into a digital survey for each block requiring the survey team to digitally create scale elevations and corresponding plans.

In Phase 2 this data was used to inform a design strategy for the restoration of existing buildings, and the creation of new nodes and landmarks. Using digital media new design schemes were created overlaying existing photographs demonstrating the importance of composite visual imaging in place making design against an established context.