Downtown: The fountain
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 11, 2015 1:50 AM
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The fountain as it has been designed.
At the center of downtown Goldsboro's new look is a fountain -- a $385,000 fountain.
It is part of a modern look that will include not only the granite pieces stacked to resemble a city skyline, but four modern art pieces.
And some say it is a dramatic difference -- not only from how the city used to look, but from how the initial downtown revitalization was pitched.
When the original vision for Center Street renovations was first shown to the public as part of the downtown master plan, it showed rows of shade trees in the Center Street median, 17-foot wide sidewalks, a clock tower in the traffic circle of East Ash Street and the addition of only one roundabout at the intersection of Walnut and Center streets that would feature a small fountain.
Instead, as the Streetscape project comes to a close, downtown will now have three roundabouts containing a 12-and-a-half-foot high fountain in the middle of Walnut and Center streets, and two pieces of modern art placed in roundabouts where Mulberry and Chestnut streets intersect Center Street.
Those involved in the project -- from the staff of the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. to Allison Platt, who designed the downtown master plan for the city -- maintain that what was originally shown to the public at the turn of this decade was only a concept.
But, after settling arguments over the removal of Center Street's holly trees, parking arrangements and how the lamps illuminating downtown would appear, the public agreed upon the original renderings they were shown that have since changed.
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"Cityscape," the name of the fountain currently downtown, which was designed by Ms. Platt, cost $385,012 and was funded by a combination of TIGER V grant money and a loan taken out by the city that provided the required local match of funding to go with the federal grant funds the city received for Streetscape.
The fountain's appearance is based on a concept Ms. Platt originally created for New Bern, when she was working with the city's government there to redesign New Bern's downtown.
"I had been thinking about a fountain actually for New Bern," Ms. Platt said. "It was a small fountain, and it was a representation of elements that looked like city skyscrapers. They never got the money for it, but it was kind of a 'wouldn't it be cool if we could do this.' So the change from just a regular intersection to a roundabout came about, and the city expressed some interest in having some kind of a central feature added at Walnut Street."
After that, Ms. Platt said she began looking into fountain designs for the roundabout. One concept was a cast iron fountain, but Ms. Platt said she tapped back into what she conceptualized for New Bern in creating a fountain that represented a city skyline, ultimately creating the entirely granite fountain in the roundabout today.
"Everyone liked that the best," Ms. Platt said. "So when we got the TIGER grant and they had some more funds to work with, they said go ahead and design it."
The decision to place a fountain in the roundabout was added almost a year into the process of creating the design for the three blocks of the Streetscape project, which is being completed Oct. 29, and Ms. Platt said the city selected her for the fountain because she was already creating the design for Streetscape.
No bids were put out publicly for the design of the fountain, Ms. Platt said, but rather the city simply added the fountain to the scope of her work in creating the design for the last three blocks of Streetscape.
She said the design for the fountain was presented to both the Goldsboro City Council and the city's Historic District Commission, on which she currently serves as the chairperson. Ms. Platt did note that she removed herself from the vote held on the matter by the Historic District Commission since voting on her own designs would present a conflict of interest.
Assistant Planning Director Jennifer Collins, who serves on the Historic District Commission and was present for the vote, said nobody voted in opposition.
This vote of approval by the Historic District Commission was held after the City Council had approved the design plans.
The design of the fountain was presented to the City Council as part of the drawings for the final three blocks of the Streetscape project, which was approximately a year and a half ago, Ms. Platt said. That places the presentation of the design for Streetscape and the fountain before it was sent out to public bid in March 2014 or earlier.
"I know there are some people who said that they didn't know about the design," Ms. Platt said. "But, in fact, it was out in a lot of public forums, including the Historic District Commission. When the plans were approved in a preliminary way (for Streetscape) before it went out to bid, all the drawings were done, all the drawings were there, anybody who wanted to could've looked at them."
Additionally, she said, the drawings for the fountain were placed in the entryway of City Hall for "anybody who wanted to look at them" during the bid process of the Streetscape project.
"I think there were some people who said, you know, they should have been consulted, but they should have been paying attention," Ms. Platt said.