A nine-member ad hoc committee hasbeen meeting the past year to look at possible improvements forthe Community Plaza in downtown Los Altos, a plaza that has stirreddebate over its design throughout its two-year history.
Committee members, who are seeking city and resident input, insistthey aren’t out to make wholesale changes on the official LosAltos town square, at the intersection of State and Main streets.They said any improvements – they’re suggesting mainly landscapingchanges and improved shading – would be part of a comprehensiveplan consistent with the “character and scale of the downtowntriangle.”
In addition to consistency with city planning, the committee’sgoals are to promote greater pedestrian usage of the plaza andto fund the changes with private donations, not city money.
Priorities for improvements include: increasing seating; addingcolor with flowers; removing the current conifer tree; and relocatingthe bronze bust of the late Walter Singer.
“We’re not trying to impose our own agenda,” said committeechairman Mark Sandoval, a Los Altos architect. “The issuehere was to try to bring more attention to landscaping.”
“We want to be sensitive and respectful of the work gonebefore us,” said fellow committee member Beth Beach, a landscapedesigner and Los Altos Hills resident. “We don’t want totrash or tear down.”
The committee formed in 1995 after an initial meeting last Julyat the Plaza among those interested in improvements. The committee,after narrowing down to nine committed members, held its firstmeeting Sept. 27, 1995. Sandoval and Beach said members have beenresearching the plaza design; contacting local arborists, suchas Mary Kaye and the Los Altos Garden Club; and consulting withthe city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on the designof its town square.
The committee has referred often to Jane Reed’s original visionof the plaza, documented in her report, “The Plaza Story.”It was Reed, a former Los Altos mayor, member of the local RotaryClub and a former executive with the Los Altos Village Association,who came up with the plaza idea.
Elements in Reed’s September 1995 report included “Welcometo Los Altos” signing, a decorative fountain, brick inscriptionsand a wall of plaques, flag poles, a public clock, a mixture ofplanted and paved areas, a tree bosque for shade, colorful plantingin pots, a stage or amphitheater and a covered structure, suchas a gazebo or trellis.
The current plaza has most of these elements, such as the townclock donated by Louise Spangler in memory of her husband, Denny,and the gazebo. But plaza design has come under criticism, mainlyfor its lack of greenery and shading. The mostly cement and inscribedbrick floor of the plaza has created an unintentional haven foryoung skateboarders and rollerbladers, prompting a city review.Other criticisms included the positioning of the benches, whichface the street, and the Singer bust, which some say should facethe other way.
Sandoval and Beach said the committee would take their findingsand recommendations to the city for input within the next twoweeks and added their work may be available for public reviewat the library or City Hall.
Sandoval noted the committee’s role is advisory, so the next steps,such as deciding on what changes to implement and financing, wouldhave to be initiated by the city and its residents.
The community plaza was formally completed and opened in March1994 following a partnership between neighboring Citibank officials,the city and the Los Altos Rotary Club to build the plaza.
The Rotary Club raised most of the more than $250,000 needed forplaza construction by offering donors the opportunity to writepersonal inscriptions on bricks and tiles.
Go to: [This Week’s Stories][Search All Issues][LA Online]
© Copyright 1996. Select Communications, Inc. All rightsreserved.
