Tag Archives: Arkansas Natural Resources Commission

Creative Corridor Celebrated This Afternoon

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A grand opening to highlight the new features and completed sections of the Creative Corridor’s Low Impact Development (LID) streetscape will be held 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, as the revitalization of Little Rock’s Main Street continues to take shape, block by block.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola will join Ron Curry, Region 6 administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Randy Young, executive director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, for the kickoff event, which will begin with a project update at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre (601 Main Street). Professor Stephen Luoni of the University of Arkansas School of Architecture and director of the UA Community Design Center will give an informative presentation on the theories of Low Impact Development and creative place-making that underpin the project.

The most recently completed improvements in the 500 block of Main Street will be open to the public for strolling along the tree-lined boardwalk on the west side.  All of the pedestrian and environmentally friendly streetscapes in the 100, 200, 300 and 500 blocks of Main Street contain LID features such as bioswales, porous pavers, rain gardens, and other biodiverse vegetation.

The grand opening will also celebrate the elements of creative place-making that have occurred. Recent public art installations and the clustering of artistic and creative organizations on Main Street are transforming the Creative Corridor into a downtown hub that supports a great level of pedestrian activity, sociability, recreation and aesthetics.

An arts open house and reception will follow the tour, with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Arkansas, Matt McLeod Fine Art, and Cranford Co. opening the doors to their new, connected spaces.

“The progress on Main Street is a harbinger of the exciting development yet to come for this area,” says Stodola. “The Creative Corridor, once just a vision, has become a vibrant reality that has earned national accolades, brought together many of our City’s cultural institutions, and created these beautiful spaces that will continue to grow.”

The Creative Corridor is a mixed-use development project aimed at restoring the vitality of Main Street by creating an arts district and retrofitting a four-block segment of the street between President Clinton Avenue and 7th streets. The City of Little Rock estimates that more than $100 million in private and public investment has occurred to date to help make this vision a reality.

 

Imagine Main Street – Presentation on 12.12.12

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downtownlrMain Street was important to Little Rock’s development.  As the City moved south from the Little Rock and Markham Street, the growth happened from a spur of Main Street.  Over the years, things have changed to be certain.

Plans are in the works to return Main Street to a prominent role in anchoring not only downtown, but Little Rock and the entire state.  The Downtown Little Rock Partnership is co-sponsoring with Little Rock’s Mayor Mark Stodola a public presentation of the Creative Corridor plan for Main Street on Wednesday, December 12 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. (A light lunch will be available.)

The community is invited to attend the viewing of these exciting designs with its architects, Stephen Luoni, chair of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, and Marlon Blackwell. Luoni and Blackwell teamed with the City, DLRP, and stakeholders to create the plans via a NEA Our Town grant.

Partial green streetscapes as demonstrated in the plan will soon be implemented on some blocks of Main Street as a part of a grant from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

For more information or to RSVP contact the Downtown Little Rock Partnership office at 501-375-0121 or email Jayme Morrisette at jmorrisette@downtownlr.com.