A description of the Plan NH activities taking place in Jackson on May 21 and 22, 2004 is shown below. Also included is a summary and conceptual drawings of the recommendations. The complete report is 16 pages on 8.5 by 17 inch paper with many pictures of the town and the Plan NH activities as well as the a complete set of conceptual drawings. This report is available in a .PDF Acrobat file by clicking the link below. The file size is 20 Mb (That's Mb not Kb) and will take several minutes to download even with a high speed connection.
Plan NH
Jackson Village Charrette
May 21 and 22, 2004
Who is Plan NH?
Plan NH is a professional association for those working in the built environment. It includes architects, planners, engineers, bankers, contractors, historic preservationists, and others who concern themselves with buildings and communities. It was established to create a forum for bringing together these different professional groups, and as a catalyst to spur interest in community development. Part of Plan NH’s mission is to make a positive contribution to New Hampshire communities. One way in which Plan is doing this is by offering, on a regular basis, free design assistance to communities with demonstrated needs.
What is a Design Charrette, anyway?
Simply stated, a design charrette is a brainstorming session where lots of ideas are brought forth by both professional designers and local citizens, in an attempt to resolve a problem of local interest. Because of the compressed time frame, the conclusions reached are usually conceptual. Conclusions present the relationship of different plan elements, as opposed to the details of how a particular building would actually be constructed. At their best, charrettes blend the broad experience of design professionals with local citizens’ detailed knowledge of their community to produce a plan of action to deal with a particular issue of concern to that community. The charrette provides an overall framework within which final solutions can be developed. It sets a tone and gives a direction against which future decisions can be
measured.
Why did Plan NH come to Jackson?
Each year Plan NH invites communities to enter proposals into a competition for a weekend of donated design services to be used in solving a problem of local interest. Plan NH looks for projects that are important to the host community, projects that present an interesting design problem, and projects which seem to have a high probability of actually being implemented. A community that is organized and has done some early work on a project scores well. A proposal from a community that has not thought out its needs or how it would implement the recommendations from the charrette does not fair as well.
The Proposal
In February, 2004 the Town of Jackson submitted an Application for Design Assistance to the Plan NH charrette program. The Town’s proposal was centered around the “need to determine the most feasible and beneficial way to develop a cohesive town center…” This goal incorporated the possible re-use and/or relocation of publicly-owned historic buildings, new construction, and road realignment in the center of the village. Several other needs and objectives were also to be considered as part of the design program including;
Additional indoor recreation and special needs space for the Jackson Grammar School
Additional space for the public library
Additional space for the Town highway department equipment storage
Additional space for the Fire Department equipment storage
ADA compliance and adequate plumbing in the Town Hall meeting space
The Town of Jackson Offices are located in a newly constructed building adjacent to the fire and highway department facility. These buildings abut a 34 acre parcel owned by the town which is available for expansion needs for the school, library, fire, etc.. However, because these facilities and land are approximately 1/4 mile from the center of the village the Town is concerned that new buildings located there would detract from the village core.
Recommendations and Options
1. Providing More Space for Fire and Highway Departments away from the Village Core.
The Fire and Highway Department space needs could be addressed jointly and the team designed two concepts for the area near the Town Offices, Fire Station, and the 34 acre Grays Inn Parcel. Both options included;
Keeping the Fire Station in it’s present location, adding new space for equipment parking.
A new Highway department garage and salt/sand shed
A new Community Center
Maintain access to ski-touring trails
This option focused on placement of the buildings on the parcel. Option 1 is shown below. Option 2 moves the hgihway garage and salt shed over the the right closer to the Ice Pond Brook and is not shown.
OPTION 1
Community Center
Below is a conceptual design for a community center on the Gray's Inn property. Bear in mind that the Plan NH recommendations for the town center also envision providing for meeting space using the town hall or Trickey Barn.
2. Addressing the needs of the School, Library and Town Hall within the village core.
The principle concept guiding the plan was maintaining the “Village as Campus” model. The plan incorporated the renovation and re-use of many of the existing historic buildings. The buildings identified within this concept offer the Town of Jackson the utmost in flexibility when determining the ultimate uses. Plan Highlights;
Realign Rt. 16B to intersect with 16A closer to river bridge. This provides space in front of school and improves safety of the intersection.
Relocate Trickey Barn adjacent to School, on north side, to be used as a library for students and public, or as a public theater and meeting space holding as many as 300 people. Barn is connected to the school with a covered walkway
Relocate Town Hall building to be sited opposite the school. This location creates a compact ‘campus’ arrangement and brings the Town Hall to the core of the village. This building would be renovated and be used as the public library or continue to be used for indoor recreation for students, as well as community space and theater space for the town.
Playground and hot top rearranged on site to allow for future expansion to east side of school building
Outdoor class rooms created by campus ‘quad’
Additional parking provided on old site of Trickey Barn
The footprint for this recommendation is shown below
FOOTPRINT
And a conceptual drawing of this recommendation is shown next.
CONCEPTUAL DRAWING
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