Report of the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team of the American Institute of Architects Waterbury, Conn
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Report of the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team of the American Institute of Architects Waterbury, Conn. October 4, 1993 1: El -§ §T| i II 1 0 S N 1 Waterbury INTRODUCTIOOver the past 21 years, the rewarding. N that fully objective findings and recom American Institute of Architects, R/UDAT team members, who per mendations can be assured. through its Urban Planning and Design form their services voluntarily, have In preliminary visits, the Waterbury Committee, has offered to communities been appointed by the AIA's Urban R/UDAT team confirmed the steering the services of a Regional/Urban Design and Planning Committee's committee's request to concentrate on Design Assistance Team, or R/UDAT. R/UDAT Steering Group. As with the the central business district, surround Waterbury has met all the require other 128 teams who have served com ing neighborhoods and the integration ments for such a visit. Our team study, of the proposed new mall into the munities over the past 20 years, each downtown. reported here, is a reflection of whole team member agrees not to receive any hearted community support, and the These concerns seemed to be the commission for work based upon the ones best addressed by a team of city team wishes to express our warm team's recommendations. The AIA has planners and architects. Many other appreciation and best of luck to all the Report of the always held this requirement intact so ideas, goals and challenges were re Regional/Urban Greater Waterbury citizens who made cently identified through the Commu Design our visit so nity Vision for Waterbury study and Assistance Team of the American October 4, 1993 town meetings, and are being imple Institute of mented by separate task forces of local Architects volunteers. Waterbury, Conn. Section 2 of this report, Background outlines Waterbury's history as an in October 4,1993 novative industrial city that today has lost its founding industries, but not its spirit. Section 3, Visions and Reflections, ••i M H S III IIIll HI S«is m Wk m explores Waterbury's image of itself and perceptions of others. It reflects the past and the future. The R/UDAT team reviews essential building blocks of governance and community interaction in Section 4, Building Community. Ways to improve participation and communication both within the community and region are also explored. Section 5, Connections, reviews the physical and social connections for the mi,v olhor i«*J«*** . -- !MT effort no* b» tbr community to function effectively. The intensity of community involve Jcrbury ^^rSX'^Umtion of the; «jr£ ^ ,,„, ment throughout the R/UDAT process rCsiK»i.sibims for the ^Vf^^Js of tadhidiuto -M* I* oi have shown the residents' desire to W cornments «^2SJ an(l love 0f out-o y ^friUrs-. we can par- make and improve the connections VP>ed fmstialious. hnt j*»1 » th|,ir hopt.s in the n within the community. aim. .Tust as our clu dwi *P A Greater Downtown, Section 6, in { cludes the concept that downtown Waterbury needs to be expanded to in clude the area from Hamilton Park along East Main and West Main to the railroad bridge, from North Square on Waterbury once again as a gum the north to Market Square on the ofC»nnofticut LydiaStmus-EdiL-ariUi> south. The critical nature of the inte jejfjfrey 0»JpM> Co-rhairmcn gration of the adjacent neighborhoods ! into this commercial core is also re viewed. Section 7, Moving Forward, lays out short, medium and long-term actions and strategies. W A T E RBU R§Y $ R §E PUBLICAN A M E R I C.iAtI Ntf s E Wmm: II IN z Waterbury is best known as the thing but distinguished. The first By the turn of that century, how Waterbury Brass City. European settlers arrived on the ever, Waterbury's potential as a More than we would like to inhospitable slopes of the manufacturing site and a distribu admit, this nostalgic nickname is Naugatuck River in 1674. They tion center was beginning to be still a useful definition of the city came from distant Farmington, realized. fil and a good starting place in under today a 20-minute ride on the For half a century, Waterburians standing this complex community. expressway but then a rugged had been making buttons locally, Waterbury came by its brassy woodland away. and in 1802, ambitious manufactur title honestly. During the city's hey They estimated their new home ers began turning them out in day, the largest brass manufactur was capable of providing for 30 brass. The partnership then would ing plants in the world were herIP families at most but didn't stay eventually become the Scovill Manufacturing conglomerate. Report of the Waterbury, it was said, was the city long enough to test that theory; Regional/Urban that "had something on everyone." fear of Indians drove them back Just a few years later, clock Design making took hold locally. In 1810, Assistance Team And that seemed literally true. home after a year or two. of the American three men began manufacturing Institute of Americans kept time by the When they returned in 1677, the Architects clocks on Waterbury's Great famous Waterbury watch, the time white settlers made peace with the Brook; the concern would become Waterbury, Conn. piece that "made the dollar natives long enough to purchase a the Waterbury Clock Co. and, October 4,1993 famous." They folded those dollars huge swath of land for 38 English much later, Timex. into Waterbury-made brass clips pounds. The new territory ranged By the Civil War, Waterbury was and held their houses together from southernmost Naugatuck to already establishing a worldwide with hardware fashioneti in the northernmost Thomaston and cov reputation as a producer of first city's throbbing forges. ered 128 square miles. quality goods. Soldiers on both sides of the Much of it was poorly suited to "It was literally true and had Civil War secured their uniforms farming, and by 1780, an aide to been for years," historian William with Waterbury buttons and shot at the Marquis de Lafayette summed J. Pape wrote of Waterbury near each other using shell casings up the century-old community this the turn of the century, "that it was made in the city. way: "The village is frightful and almost impossible to make any The community's origins are any without resources." thing from an umbrella to a pair of shoes or a suit of clothes, from a small electric motor to a locomo tive or a battleship, from a trunk or handbag to a great office building or hotel without creating a demand for something made of brass or copper and sending to Waterbury for it." The list ojigroducts manufac tured here seems nearly endless. A partial inventory, created in 1897, reveals something of its remarkable diversity. The city was already famous as a maker of Republican-American archive photo clocks and watches; buckles and Looking west along West Main Street near the Elton, circa 1932. garters; ivory, cloth, and brass but tons; plus nails, eyelets, safety WATER B U R Y REP II B L I C A N ;A m *E m I C AA M ® Waterbury Report of the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team of the American Institute of Architects Waterbury, Conn. October 4,1993 Republican-American archive photo A worker in a rolling mill at the Scovill brass plant, circa 1949. pins, hinges, paper boxes, chains, brass buckle. Americans and about 14,600 boilers, plumber's fittings, screws Although the successes and Hispanics. Each group represents and rivets, steel traps and cow excesses of the 80s seemed capa about 13 percent of the total popu bells, toilet articles, and heavy ble of changing that image, lation. The median age is just over machinery. The sun never set on Waterbury continues, in many peo 33; there are 25,600 residents Waterbury's empire of brass, and it ple's minds, to be thought of as a under 18, and 18,000 over 65. looked in those heady days as if it "gritty city" that claims the dubi When scouts arrived in never would. ous distinction of being "a perenni Waterbury several years ago to But it did. al bottom-dweller" on Money prepare filming MGM's "Stanley Waterbury's glory days came Magazine's list of the 300 most live during war time as the city geared able communities in America. and Iris," they admitted they were up to respond to apparently cease Nevertheless, the faded attracted to the city because they less needs. After World War n, the Industrial Revolution left its lega wanted the gritty, sooty, somewhat economy started to change, how cy. Waterbury's thriving mills disheveled look of an old mill ever, and folks in the Brass City attracted immigrants by the thou town. didn't seem prepared to under sands, and today the city is home They found everything they were stand or take advantage of the to a remarkable mix of cultures. looking for: gaping, empty facto change. As a consequence, Waterbury is ries, scarred housing, sleazy gin Slowly, inevitably, heavy indus punctuated by steeples that ener mills, a city well past its prime. n try got lighter. Heavily unionized gize the skyline and define the But they were also surprised to If you turn manufacturing fled to the Orient community as a city of churches find things they never expected: an your back to and to America's Deep South. and surrounding neighborhoods. accessible, even elegant, down the history, Factories that had been the envy of The same Waterbury that supports town, handsome public buildings, the world for their productivity eight parochial elementary schools you turn your gracious old boulevards and gen back on why and product lines began to look and two Catholic high schools also like industrial slums, and one by hosts three synagogues and two teel mansions.