Matteson Awarded Urban Design Grant

The village of Matteson has been awarded a Design Arts Program grant in the amount of $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, to support an urban design study demonstrating how design can integrate a freeway location into the surrounding community. The grant will be matched by village funds.

Matteson is the only municipality in the state of Illinois to have received the Design Arts Program grant in 1987. According to Dorothy DeGennaro, program specialist for the Design Arts Program, only 18 percent of the more than 700 applicants — applying for a myriad of activities — were awarded grants. For example, the Lyric Opera of Chicago was included in the awards.

Proposals were arduously reviewed by a volunteer, multi-disciplinary group of 15 panelists consisting of architects, planners, artists, etc., who voted unanimously in favor of Matteson receiving the award.

"Contributing factors to Matteson's award included the timely and on-target analysis of a critical design problem, the village's apparent commitment to carrying out the program without seeking Federal funds, and the quality of the proposed project," said DeGennaro.

Matteson is seeking an innovative conceptual and schematic design, and hopes to set itself as a model/demonstration project for a design solution for a new urban center for a regional community of nearly 100,000 persons.

A nationwide search for a design team with expertise in urban design, landscape architecture and urban planning will begin immediately. With guidelines established by the village's Community Development department, headed by Ralph Coglianese, director, the chosen design team will be directed to design a way to link the urban center and areas now divided by Matteson-related freeways and major highways.

A major goal of the project is to harmonize the relationship between the high-intensity urban center and surrounding residential areas, surmounting the psychological, social and physical barriers of the expressway which nourishes but also divides the community.

In addition to the design aspect of the project, designers will be required to submit a practical, affordable layout, and to provide strategies on how to implement these plans, which will then be undertaken by village staff.

Jeff Johnson, Matteson's development planner, observed, "The community of Matteson is presently divided into islands by the freeways. The challenge of the design assistance study will be to find an urban design which will accent the expressway system, which makes our commercial area successful; but will also provide the sense of community that a commercial/cultural center can provide.

"Important to the design is to focus on those natural, cultural and aesthetic elements that lend character and distinction to a place; while knitting together the community space, living areas and centers of commerce," commented Coglianese. "We need to take into consideration the social and civic needs of the residents of Matteson and those who work here."

In doing so, the village hopes to have a workable plan and to avoid the traffic congestion and notable lack of design now visible in many communities where a high degree of development has taken place in the last decade. These areas are also known for a corresponding lack of social interaction, where the focus of community life becomes the major streets and highways, and is not designed to support community cohesiveness, identity and interaction.

Page 14 / Illinois Municipal Review / May 1988

The area in Matteson designated to benefit from an urban design encompasses a 700-acre area which is poised to develop as a commercial office center. "Instead of isolating the offices and employment centers and merely dressing them up with landscapped campuses and lakes, which removes the business community from the community as a whole, we seek to bring in traditional arenas for the display and presentation of public art, music and drama; bringing both elements of the community together," said Coglianese.

"Matteson is unique only in the recognition that a design solution can be implemented," he continued.

Gerald Stillman, president of Mid-Continent Builders and Development Co. already has plans for a 198-acre office/commercial park — part of the new Matteson urban center of vacant, centrally-located, freeway-accessible land. Southwick Properties recently subdivided 37 acres for a corporate office park.

In addition, Matteson's new police facility was built in that location last year, and the U.S. Postal Service has announced its plans to build a regional post office in the area.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a Federal agency advised by the National Council on the Arts. Its Design Arts Program established a national theme called, "Design of Cities — Shaping the Public Realm," realizing the American people have become increasingly concerned about the quality of American cities. With this program, they hope to encourage excellence and ingenuity in the design of public environments of every scale.

For further information regarding the urban design project in Matteson, call Ralph Coglianese or Jeff Johnson at (312) 481-8313. •

May 1988 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 15