Town Center Illustrated Master Plan
MidOhio Design and
Lincoln Street Studio Architects worked with the City of Channahon to design a
New Town Master Plan for the Diocese of Joliet at Channahon, Illinois. This
master plan design was the winning entry in a national design competition
conducted by the Diocese.
The goal of the plan of
Channahon Town Center is to provide for the development of an active,
well-rounded, attractive and flexible village core. The strategy is to make the downtown area
reflective of the structure of a typical Midwestern town, while also making it
as visually stimulating as possible and suitable for the functions of a town
center for the twenty-first century.
Though typical, the town center should be unique enough to be distinctly
recognizable as opposed to being only generic.
Like the children of Lake Wobegon, Channahon Town Center should be
typical, but above average.
The Town Center is
designed to be the vibrant heart of a community. It will have shops and parks, offices and
entertainment, a government center and churches, a library and post
office. It will have numerous public
amenities. It has been planned to
contain a school, a town museum, a farmers’ market, and a bandstand on the town
green. It will have approximately 200
residential units in a variety of housing types.
While accommodating the
automobile, it is designed for the pedestrian.
It is a place where people will walk to shops and services. Children will walk or ride their bikes to a friend’s
houses, to the hobby shop and ice-cream store, to the town green and to the
library, to school, to church, and to the regional park. For residents of the Town Center and adjacent
neighborhoods, soccer moms will be at the game because they want to be there,
as observers, not because they had to be there, as drivers. All residents, adults, children, elderly,
will have the conveniences of downtown without having to get into a car to get
there.
Accessibility of the
shops, offices, library and churches, etc., will result not just in convenience
and occasional freedom from the automobile.
It means a more active neighborhood, encounters with people, and
opportunities for a quick chat. It will
be a round-the-clock neighborhood where people live, work, worship, hang out,
and play, not just park and shop. One
won’t have to stop to smell the flowers, but one could. Road rage will be replaced by sidewalk
sighs. More activities, means more
people, which results in more amenities, more opportunities, and safer streets
for young and old.
For those current and
future residents outside the boundaries of Channahon Town Center, the situation
will be similar. Residents of abutting
neighborhoods will be close enough to walk to town within minutes. They will really be the ‘first’ residents of
the Town Center as it takes shape before the new housing units are
constructed. They will walk past parks
and gardens, see the landmarks of the village core draw near, and begin to find
alternative routes and destinations.
They will have to choose: the main street or a side street? A side street or a pathway? To the flower shop first, or the
library? Eventually they will have even
more destinations and routes as new residents move in and new neighborhoods
become established and integrate with the existing social life of the
village.
For those residents of
the village that live further afield, access to the Town Center will be via the
automobile and, to a lesser extent, the park district’s bikeway system. Both
will be made welcome, but after arrival downtown, even visitors will become pedestrians
as they explore the streets, parks, squares, and pathways that knit the
districts of the core together.
