Give Input on Beacon Hill Master Plan
Decatur Metro | July 15, 2010
From the Decatur Minute…
The City of Decatur has employed Rudledge Alcock Architects and Lord Cultural Resources to complete a master plan for the renovation or redevelopment of the Beacon School complex at 420 W. Trinity Place. This building currently houses the Decatur Police Department, the Ebster Recreation Center, dance and choral performance spaces and artists’ studios.
A public input meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at Decatur City Hall, 509 N. McDonough Street. The community is invited to come and learn more about the master plan and help plan the project.
Note the choice between “renovation or redevelopment”.
It will be interesting to see how much interest/passion there is among residents for preserving this old school building – one of the few remaining reminders of the old mid-century Beacon Hill neighborhood – which is in pretty rough shape these days.
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There was rumor that the northside needed another elementary school–anyone else heard this? Maybe this former school could be utilized.
Wasn’t this suggested as a site for the Fifth Avenue 4/5 Academy? The bubbling fury that resulted was impressive!
I basically give up–there’s going to be five CSD schools on the south side of the tracks (CHLC, OA, WP, 5th Ave, and RMS) and three on the north side of the tracks (CL, GL, and DHS) and that’s that. If any more school space is needed it’s going to be trailers scattered all over the 8 schools, in the NAVA location, over at DeVry, over in to-be-annexed-Avondale, anywhere but Westchester. Meanwhile, I STILL don’t see any Westchester staff using the hoops, swings, gym, butterfly garden, or underground sprinkler system. However, there’s some real attractive parking on the lawn! Free Westchester!
Didn’t the Super say that CSD was going to start discussions about using Westchester as an elementary school late this year/early next year?
Hmmm. That rings a distant bell but I didn’t think the statement was quite that definitive Hope it happens. Maybe my grandchildren can go to Westchester…..
Move CSD administration to Beacon Hill, a nice central location, and free Westchester for children.
Where do you move the PD to?
Fifth Avenue! (Just kidding)
Actually, second choice after using Westchester as a school, would be to have the police join CSD admin at Westchester:
1) There’s plenty of room
2) They could stop cars from parking on the lawn and ruining the underground sprinkler system
3) They would be nearer to Scott Blvd speeders and any delinquents using Hidden Cove park
4) They might actually use the basketball court and gym
No police at Westchester. Can’t see the police using the swings and slide. We want children there again. Please…
Good point. Police on swings is a silly image. So is administrators on swings.
It’s called Westchester ………!
P.S. As a long time user of Beacon Hill, it will probably cost more to renovate than to tear down and rebuild. Will go to meeting to find out more.
perfect site for a small movie theater as part of the over all complex… can the city figure out some type of multi-use for the theater space/auditorium space/presentations/community meetings, and work in partnership with a non-prof to run it? plus partner with high school jr achievement for workers/management training? partner with restaurants for support (ie dinner and a movie promotions, where recent dinner receipt gets $1 off ticket (and restaurants help fund that in some way))? community membership to help support on going operations? high school film classes? Cool lobby art would be pics of the neighborhood in its heydey… parking at the county lot across the street. could also be mini film fest venue tied in with the Book Fest and Arts Fest. sublet the space in the daytime to DeVry or Art Institute for more classroom space for them? tons more ideas can be generated on this. The city can help pay for other forms of recreation, so why not contribute towards the capital costs of cinema rec?!
Come to the meeting and say that.
I will!
Love it-I think Decatur would really support a movie theater. I would love being able to walk to one. I do love the Plaza (short drive) but Midtown Arts is a haul. MOVIE THEATER!
I’d like to see it become a traditional community theatre space with k-12 theatrical workshops offered after school.
(I’m also crossing my fingers that cranky old timer wears an i.d. tag to the meeting. Wee crush!)
Indie Movie Theater?
I always thought that a Decatur theater should have two movies playing in rotation at a time. One cool indie movie and another kid movie (even if it is old) for the millions of children in the CSD trailers. . . .I love macarolina’s idea of the wall art and architecture providing character and rooting the facility in its history.
Wow, what a great idea. The family goes to the movies–the parents go in to see the indie movie and the kids go in to see the PG movie with a sign in and waiver and fee for “babysitting”. This could work! If it isn’t viable commercially, could we start this as some kind of co-op? It would be even better that a babysitting co-op–even the grown-up entertainment is provided!
Deanne– wow. I am blushing. look for the old and cranky person! That’s me!
‘ll be watching to see who slyly sticks out a foot to trip the late arriving folks!
(If you hear a giggle, you’ll know I saw you do it!)
ya’ll seem to forget that the Police Department occupies most of this building, and has since 1982. So with all of these thoughts, if you want all of this at Beacon Hill, where is the Police Department going to go?
multiple levels. Police on ground, other facilities spread throughout multiple levels. I think we can preserve aspects of the building, but add our to our current community resources by getting max impact of valuably located land through vertical use of the space.
The police currently occupy a good portion of the second floor as well as the ground floor and they need far more space than that.
definitely, priority goes to the police!!! If city has ability to go up, expand the building footprint, reconfigure space, etc., a movie theater is something I’d like to see added if we can collectively figure out a way to make it work- but of course not at the expense of police or other central city services. It just depends on how the space is designed around identified constraints (preservation, budget and topography being a few constraints). That is what planning sessions are for!