From rain gardens and skating rinks to public seating and a movable climbing wall, one Charleston group says the opportunities for the space beneath the Interstate 64 overpass near downtown Charleston are many.
After 18 months of planning, Steven Romano, the West Side program director at Charleston Main Streets, presented a set of conceptual renderings for Gallery 64, a long-term project to transform the streetscape beneath the overpass into a hub for various public uses.
The project was inspired from the city's Peer to Pier murals, and would include the overpass-covered space from Kanawha Boulevard to Washington Street West.
"One of the overarching goals of this was to connect the Elk City historic district to the boulevard and Magic Island, because those are already spaces that are being developed," Romano told members of the Strong Neighborhoods Task Force last week.
Romano said many of the features suggested for the project would be adaptable enough maintain the existing parking spaces when the area isn't being used for an event.
"The idea behind this was to build infrastructure for programmatic use for all organizations, so if the West Side Farmers Market wanted to do a pop-up market once a month, there would be infrastructure for [that]," Romano said.
Sidewalks would be installed along the length of the space for pedestrians, he said.
"Right now, there's not one connected path from Washington Street to the Boulevard," Romano said.
Many at Wednesday's meeting also support the idea of converting the space between Kanawha Boulevard and Virginia Street into RV parking.
"Right now, there's not overnight parking or accommodations for RVs or cross-country travelers close to us," Romano said.
He noted that the renderings are still "totally conceptual" and subject to changes.
City Councilman Jack Harrison agreed with the idea of RV parking.
"I've always thought we're missing an opportunity with RVs coming through Charleston," he said. "These are the kinds of ideas we ought to be talking about with our new [state] tourism director, because I think it fits in with what they're trying to do."
It's unclear if the Department of Transportation and Division of Highways would allow certain features of the renderings, such as the "urban fabric" that would be installed above the right-of-way at Washington Street West, but Romano and other city planners are hoping that a strong relationship with the DOH would help.
"Anything we do is going to involve very heavy relationships with [the] DOH," Romano said. "We tried to involve them in planning this, as much as possible."
The Wallace Pancher Group, the firm that designed the renderings, had to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Charleston Main Streets, the city and the Division of Highways.
"The goal of that was for [the] DOH to transfer some data about the site, so whenever they designed the space, they had an understanding of the infrastructure they'd be working around," Romano said.
Another fixture of Gallery 64 would increase lighting beneath the overpass through art installations.
"Light was a big piece of this, because you can do a lot of art through light. It's easily installed and low cost, but also increases the safety element of the space," Romano said.
"We're trying to find low-hanging fruit of [how] we can improve the space, aesthetically, that would also be financially feasible to incorporate."
While a timeline for construction has yet to be arranged, Romano said the next step is making the public aware of Gallery 64.
"We want to try and reach as many people as possible," he said. "Hopefully, in the next couple of years, we'll get the funding to start doing these projects."
So far, about $16,000 has been spent on the planning and conceptual renderings.
Romano knows it's a lofty project, but he said he thinks it will be viable in the long run.
"Nothing like this has ever been done in the state before," he said. "I think that will be the biggest challenge, just figuring out the logistics of making a project of this scope happen."
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.