Delay looms for parking garage, park in Lockport
Project along canal might not start in ’09
LOCKPORT — The city’s new parking garage will be paired with a park containing terraced steps to an Erie Canal overlook and perhaps an elevator down to the canal, city officials decided last week.
However, the shaky state of the economy and the Wall Street credit markets may prevent work from starting in 2009, Mayor Michael W. Tucker said.
Nevertheless, at a meeting with designers from Foit-Albert Associates, the Buffalo firm chosen to design the demolition of the old ramp and its replacement with an underground garage, aldermen and Tucker piled on the bells and whistles.
“We need to put everything we want in the original [plan]. We can always scale stuff back,” Tucker said.
Once the site at Main and Pine streets is cleared of the 260-space ramp that has stood there since 1974, the Foit-Albert plan calls for ground-level parking and two full underground levels. In all, about 200 spaces would be available, said Scott E. Kinsman, the company’s project manager.
Architect Bryce T. Bixby said the Pine Street side of the garage can consist of a screen of alternating stainless steel and brass horizontal lines.
He said the screen could be “impregnated” with light-emitting diodes used to project seasonal murals, or maybe even “stable, very tasteful advertising.”
However, Alderman Joseph C. Kibler rejected the idea to sell ads on the ramp. “It’s too commercial,” he said. “This isn’t a big city.”
On the Main Street side, the entrance driveway would be separated from the Mills Jewelers store by a narrow strip of greenery. On the other side of the driveway would be a park that would lead down to the canal observation deck.
Bixby said that there could be a concert area at street level and flowing water on either side of the main walkway.
Tucker said, “I would like some kind of signature piece, not a clock, because we have a clock across the street.”
Alderman Patrick W. Schrader said, “I would like some retail-type touristy stores along that path.”
Bixby said the city could try a farmers’ market in the park first. “It doesn’t have to be something you invest in that becomes a white elephant,” he said.
The ramp has been closed since August 2006 because of crumbling concrete after years of inadequate city maintenance.
City Treasurer Michael E. White called on Foit-Albert to supply an annual estimate of cost of operations in its proposal, which also is to include an estimate for demolishing the old ramp and building its replacement. The last figure mentioned publicly was about $5 million.
City Engineer Norman D. Allen said that for financial reasons, the city might want to arrange contracts with Foit-Albert in stages.
“This is a project we definitely want to do and need to do, but it may not be in the cards for us in 2009,” Tucker said.
“. . . Because of where it is, in the middle of the business district, I want to have all the funding in place, all the plans in place, before we start anything.”
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