Fall 2014 Coralville Connection
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ConnectionFALL 2014 OLD TOWN HALL ROLLS ALONG 5TH STREET, PAGE 5 Reimagining 5th Street: Rethink. Reconstruct. Renew. page 2 2-5 6 7 8-9 10-11 12 13 14-15 16-17 Reimagine Council Police & Fire Projects Library Little Free Performing Arts FRY fest Community 5th Spotlight Libraries 2 CORALVILLE CONNECTION REIMAGINE 5TH H$ istoric 6WUHHW /RRNVWRWKH The 5th Street corridor that stretches from 1st Avenuefuture to 10th Avenue is the focus of the City’s “Reimagine 5th” project, which is a unique opportunity for the City to maintain an area of historic significance while fostering growth. Coralville’s 5th Street, which dates back to the City’s infancy and was part of the original Highway 6, has been an arterial hub throughout the community’s development. Today, 5th Street is home to coffee shops, medical offices, financial institutions, municipal offices, public facilities, and amenities such as the Center for the Performing Arts, the Library, and S.T. Morrison Park. The convergence of redevelopment along 5th Street, planned street reconstruction and improvements, and the implementation of flood mitigation projects—combined with a goal to maintain a community-friendly and walkable corridor with trail connections, transit access, historic attrac- tions, and public spaces—bring full circle the project, “Reimagine 5th: Rethink. Reconstruct. Renew.” OLD TOWN Development Work on Old Town Coralville, the redevelopment of a previously flood-prone area, began in 2013 following a visioning process to improve and revitalize the area while integrating flood protection. Located in one of the oldest parts of Coralville, Old Town Coralville is south of 5th Street between Biscuit Creek and 2nd Avenue. This private development is a multi-year, multi-phase project. Old Town Coralville includes commercial space, townhomes, and residential condominiums planned in conjunction with permanent flood protection and site elevation. The architecture of the townhomes has been planned to fit the history of the district, trees and streetscaping tie into a neighborhood feel, public space is planned, and a trail will tie into Coralville’s trail system. 5(,0$*,1(7+&217·'ϾϾϾ 3 CORALVILLE CONNECTION REIMAGINE 5TH 5TH STREET IMPROVEMENTS FLOOD PROTECTION IN ADDITION TO OLD TOWN AND 808 ON 5TH, ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS ALLOW 5TH STREET TO BE REIMAGINED AND RENEWED. In 2015, 5th Street will be reconstructed and raised from four-block stretch of 5th Street. The street reconstruction 3rd Avenue to 4th Avenue as it crosses Biscuit Creek for projects will also allow the overhead private utilities that the final flood protection measure in the neighborhood. currently line 5th Street from 1st Avenue to 10th Avenue This project is funded by the State of Iowa Sales Tax to be relocated underground. Increment Program, which takes a portion of the sales tax Other improvements along 5th Street have already been collected by the State and diverts it to the City to be used completed, including the construction of ponds on Biscuit for flood protection improvements. Creek for stormwater quality and management, the creation Also in 2015, 5th Street will be reconstructed between of earthen flood protection berms along Biscuit Creek in 6th and 10th Avenues to install new water main, improve the coordination with the Old Town Coralville project, and the storm sewer system, and reconstruct the street pavement. May 2014 relocation of Old Town Hall (see page 5). In The sidewalks, brick pavers, lighting, and landscaping that 2013, the 1876 Schoolhouse was refurbished with a new characterize the central section of the Town Center District, roof, landscaping, and bell. just a few blocks west, will be extended east into the A FEW BLOCKS WEST OF OLD TOWN, THE 808 ON 5TH PROJECT BROKE GROUND IN 2014. 808 The location of this mixed-use development on the south side of 5th Street at 8th Avenue within the Town Center 217+ District places it adjacent to the Old Town project. The private development includes two five-story build- ings, each with four floors of residential condominiums with a mix of one and two bedroom homes, located above 18,000 square feet of commercial space with parking for tenants located below ground. 808 on 5th offers off- street parking for commercial customers at the front of the building, private parking for commercial patrons and residents in the back of the building, and a stormwater design that includes pervious pavers to reduce runoff and a bio-retention cell to capture and infiltrate stormwater. Construction of the second building will begin in 2015. While 808 on 5th brings new development to the area, the project has a unique connection to Coralville’s past (see “The Story of the Fester Building,” page 4). 319.248.1700 www.coralville.org 4 CORALVILLE CONNECTION REIMAGINE 5TH BRINGING THE STORY OF THE Fesler Building TONew A DEMOLISHED Life BUILDING TOP: THE PIED PIPER MURAL, PAINTED IN 1966 BY DIANA GREER, TAKEN PRIOR TO DEMOLITION OF 806 5TH STREET THE CHAIT GALLERIES DOWNTOWN BENJAMIN CHAIT, MURAL PHOTO CREDIT: ABOVE: THE CORALVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS SEEN Constructing the 808 on 5th project (see AT 806 5TH STREET ON JANUARY 9, 1967 page 3) requires the removal of three LEFT: THE FORMER CORALVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY SIGN AT 806 5TH STREET WAS REVEALED DURING buildings to make room for new struc- DEMOLITION IN JUNE 2014. tures. Rather than traditional demolition, Blue Sky Developers Inc. worked with a local contractor and property owners While materials from the buildings removed for the 808 on 5th project will on a “demanufacturing” process that be used for projects to last future generations, the demanufacturing process allows nearly all of the building materials highlighted the ties that one of the buildings had to Coralville’s past. to be reused for their original purpose, In 1956, six years before he became Coralville’s 20th mayor, local resi- and the remainder to be recycled. dent and business owner Daniel Fesler built a one-story warehouse and gift Items reclaimed include wood shop at 806 5th Street, but within a decade Fesler discontinued his busi- studs from interior and exterior walls, ness. In 1966, with the growing town in need of additional municipal space, insulation bats, light switches, six HVAC the City purchased and renovated the west side of the building. In January systems, toilets, sinks, mirrors, conduit, wiring, light fixtures, electrical panels, 1967, the newly-formed Coralville Public Library, which had been temporar- shingles, metal ily housed in the basement of the Old Town Hall (see page 5), moved into By saving these studs, steel their first permanent space at 806 5th Street, sharing the building with items from beams, copper, the Recreation Department. As Coralville grew so did the City’s departments the landfill, an ceiling tiles, and, in 1971 when the Recreation Department moved to their building on estimated 90% doors, signs, of the building 8th Street, the Fesler building was again renovated and the Library expand- plumbing materi- ed, with the Heritage Museum Foundation sharing space in the back of the materials will als, and more – be reused or including the building. For 20 years, the Library operated out of the Fesler building, recycled. flagpole. The trim moving up the street into its home at 1401 5th Street in 1987. has already been Back in 1966, a large mural of the Pied Piper was painted on the block reused on another project, and the truss- walls of the Fesler building, decorating the children’s reading area of the es were lifted off by a crane and will be then-new Library. Nearly 48 years later, and despite the fact that the build- used on a building in Hills. The brick ing had been under private ownership since the late 1980s, the Library’s and concrete were used to create higher mural remained intact on the walls of 806 5th Street in 2014. While it was ground for cattle on a flood-prone farm in Hills, and the excavated dirt went to not possible to preserve the original work, care was taken to professionally two private construction projects. photograph the mural prior to the building’s deconstruction, with a large- scale photographic reproduction of the mural planned for the current Library. Wanted: For consideration in Coralville’s pictorial history by Arcadia Publishing, contact historian Tim Walch at [email protected] or call 319.338.6650. OLD TOWN HALL CORALVILLE CONNECTION 5 If the 130-year-old walls of Coralville’s historic Old Town Hall could talk... MOVING ...they could tell stories of the council meetings, church services, THE Old Town Hall social events, and businesses housed It started in the late 1880s, when the two- In the 1990s, the Old Town Hall was level brick building known as Coralville’s Old transferred to private ownership and moved over the decades. Town Hall was erected at 405 2nd Avenue from 405 to 406 2nd Avenue—from the east The bricks could on land donated by the Charles E. Robinson side to the west side of the street—to make family; the upper level was to be used as way for the development of RiverView Square. speak of how they a church and the lower as a town hall and Because the building was moved literally were placed by community room. Eventually, ownership of across the street, the original front door pioneer residents the property reverted back to the Robinson became the back door, and a new front heirs: three consecutive years passed without entrance was built. Since part of the original who donated their the building being used for church services, structure was built into the ground, the labor, or of the and by clause the townspeople forfeited base of the building’s lower level was lost.