CentrePointe: Two see divergent paths to one goal

To see the range of public opinion about CentrePointe, you need look no further than Mayor Jim Newberry and Vice Mayor Jim Gray.

Gray has been among the most vocal critics of Dudley and Woodford Webb’s plan for the CentrePointe development downtown, which would include a four-star hotel, luxury condos, offices, restaurants and shops.

Jim Gray

Gray has questioned the plan’s economic viability, its scale and design, its destruction of historic buildings and the process that allowed it to be sprung on the public as virtually a done deal.

Newberry backs CentrePointe. This week, he sent a series of four e-mails to the community endorsing the project again and scolding some of its critics.

“I do not consider it to be a perfect development,” Newberry wrote in one e-mail, “but on balance there has never been any doubt in my mind but that the best interests of Lexington are served by the completion of CentrePointe.”

Newberry’s e-mails focus more on the advantages of a big downtown development than on the specific plans for CentrePointe. The project will create jobs, increase downtown density and maybe even preserve farmland, he wrote.

Jim Newberry

But Newberry seems to have missed the point of CentrePointe’s critics. Nobody opposes development on the block; critics just want some city leadership to get a better development plan.

I’ve watched the CentrePointe debate at City Hall with great interest, because it mirrors some of the conversations I hear on the street.

If you follow this column, you know that I think Gray has been right about CentrePointe from the beginning. But I also have a lot of respect for Newberry.

I think they both want what’s best for Lexington. And, ironically, they have the same vision for Lexington — a future based on preserving our culture and character while building a knowledge-based economy that attracts the “creative class” of workers who will make it possible.

So why the disconnect?

Newberry comes from the world of corporate law, where he was managing partner of a major firm. He’s practical, careful and literal. What do our laws require? Is the developer following the law? Will the developer go away if we demand more of him?

Gray, the president of his family’s large construction company, comes from a much different sphere, and this controversy plays to his professional expertise.

Gray knows a lot about development, construction and architecture. His company helped build the 21C hotel and museum in Louisville, an innovative redevelopment project that has drawn international acclaim. And he understands the power that good architecture has to inspire a city’s residents and attract the world’s attention.

Ever since the CentrePointe plan was unveiled, Gray has insisted that Lexington deserves better than it is getting from the Webbs.

In many ways, Newberry and Gray represent the yin and yang of Lexington.

This is a conservative, practical and careful city — but one that knows it must become more creative and innovative to succeed in the 21st century and beyond.

It’s also a city uncomfortable with change and conflict, even though conflict is often the path to dialogue that leads to better results.

CentrePointe has been a wake-up call for both Newberry and Gray — and, I hope, for many others — that Lexington needs to become more intentional about how it handles development, especially downtown.

I’ll write more about that on Sunday.

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Worth reading: Dan Rowland, a UK professor and former director of UK’s Gaines Center for the Humanities, has a good op-ed piece in Thursday’s paper about lessons we can learn from CentrePointe. Read it here.

Any CentrePointe TIF needs a close look

The best thing city officials have done so far in the CentrePointe fiasco is to begin studying how tax increment financing could be used to help downtown.

The Urban County Council created a task force, which includes seven council members and Mayor Jim Newberry. It could be a valuable forum for them and the public to ask questions and make decisions that will shape Lexington for decades.

Tax increment financing, known as TIF, is a great tool. It allows cities to use a portion of local and state taxes generated by a major private development for up to 30 years to pay for public improvements needed to make that development possible.

There are three big questions that need answering soon: Can CentrePointe qualify as a TIF project? If so, is it the right project for the TIF tool? And, if so, what downtown improvements should be bought with that tax money - improvements that will be in Lexington’s best interests, and not just in the best interests of CentrePointe’s developers?

State law requires that TIF financing be essential to a project, which could be an problem with CentrePointe. That’s because developers Dudley and Woodford Webb say they will build no matter what. Can Lexington convince the state that CentrePointe qualifies for TIF?

“It’s a challenge,” acknowledged Jim Parsons, a Newport attorney hired by the task force to be its TIF consultant. “I’ve never seen a TIF like this.”

The key, Parsons said, could be how the project is presented to state officials: Is the project just CentrePointe, or is it a downtown revitalization plan of which CentrePointe is a key part?

Lexington officials also need to decide if CentrePointe is the right project for raising the money they want for downtown improvements. Whatever portion of downtown is included in a CentrePointe TIF district will essentially be locked up, precluding any other TIF projects there for 30 years.

If bonds were issued to pay for the improvements, they could generate between $35 and $70 million, officials estimate. Newberry raised an intriguing idea at the TIF task force’s meeting Tuesday: If the city used tax revenues gradually to pay for public improvements rather than issuing bonds, it could, by the CentrePointe developers’ estimates, have as much as $190 million to work with.

One problem with that approach, though, is it shifts the risk from bondholders to the city. If CentrePointe’s four-star hotel, shops, offices and luxury condos are wildly successful, the city could get even more money. If they’re not, the city could get far less.

Is CentrePointe a viable project? There are many skeptics, including other hoteliers who see little demand for a new luxury hotel and people who see lots of vacant retail space downtown.

Vice Mayor Jim Gray and Councilman Tom Blues, who are skeptical, sought proof Tuesday that the Webbs have the more than $200 million needed to build CentrePointe. They asked for letters from the investors promising that the money has been pledged.

“Is the financing committed?” Gray asked. “Is the project real? I’ve learned over time that all that glitters is not gold.”

The Webbs’ attorney, Darby Turner, refused to provide any proof of funding or identify the investors. Based on previous comments by Dudley Webb, the investors are foreign.

“We’re going to build the project,” Turner said. “The financing is in place. Do you all want to come along or not?”

Turner said CentrePointe’s investors want their business to stay private, adding that might pose a problem with underwriters if the city seeks to issue TIF bonds.

In other words, Lexington just has to trust the Webbs. And that trust must extend well beyond the next couple of years, when CentrePointe either will or won’t be built.

As Gray noted, most of the revenue the city would use for improvements would come from state sales taxes - and that money won’t come unless CentrePointe’s hotel and shops succeed long-term.

Assuming Lexington does a CentrePointe TIF project, everyone should take a close look at how that future tax money is used. An initial list of possible projects prepared by the mayor’s office and given to task force members Tuesday raised concerns.

The proposal - and it is just a proposal - listed $48 million in projects, including some great ideas: $2 million CORRECTION: $14 million for renovating the old courthouse, which houses the Lexington History Museum; $2 million for renovating the old courthouse plaza; $1.5 million for a permanent Farmer’s Market facility; $2.5 million for public art; and $3 million for downtown entertainment venues.

There also was money for improvements to Phoenix Park, utilities, sewer and streetscape improvements.

However, the list also included projects that bear close scrutiny. There’s a $1 million outdoor Jumbotron that could be used during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010 and for things like Friday night movies. OK, that’s worth discussing.

But there are a couple of things I’m very skeptical of. The first is a proposed two- or three-level parking garage below Phoenix Park, with as many as 331 parking spaces costing $30,000 each.That could cost $10 million, plus a few million more to put Phoenix Park back together.

The garage would be good for CentrePointe, but is it a wise investment for the city?

Street parking downtown is popular and limited. But there already seems to be plenty of available space in downtown parking structures. In general, people don’t like parking structures, and they like underground parking even less. Before city officials invest millions in this costliest form of new parking space, they should do a thorough study of downtown’s parking inventory and anticipated needs.

It’s also worth asking whether those millions might be better spent on downtown public transportation. Trolleys? Streetcars?

But the thing I’m most skeptical of is a proposal for $3 million worth of “pedways,” also known as skywalks, to connect CentrePointe to the proposed parking garage and the garage at the Webbs’ Financial Center (”the big blue building”) across Upper Street.

If CentrePointe’s design looks like something out of the 1980s, skywalks are an idea from the 1960s that have been widely discredited since then. Why? Because they take human activity off the street.

(READ MORE about other cities’ experiences with skywalks here and here and here.)

One of the biggest complaints many people have about CentrePointe’s design is that it isn’t friendly to street activity. Pedways would make it even less so.

The first public hearing about a CentrePointe TIF was held after Tuesday’s task force meeting. It was lightly attended, and only a handful of citizens spoke. Maybe that was because it’s early in the process, and people have little information to react to.

Our elected city officials have provided a great forum for discussing these issues. They, and Lexington citizens, should make the most of it ­- and soon.

Have your say on CentrePointe TIF, local parks

This week offers a couple of good opportunities to learn more about plans for improving Lexington and to have your say about them.

The Urban County Council panel that is studying tax increment financing (TIF) for downtown improvements related to Dudley Webb’s proposed CentrePointe development will have a public hearing Tuesday at 6 p.m. in council chambers at Main Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

I’m skeptical about a CentrePointe TIF project for several reasons, but I’m keeping an open mind. I’m glad city officials are studying the issue closely. I’m also glad they have hired their own TIF expert for advice, rather than relying only on The Webb Companies’ consultant.

Another good opportunity for civic engagement is a series of public meetings tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday on the future of Lexington’s excellent system of public parks. It’s an opportunity to have your say as city officials put together a parks master plan for the next decade. Click here or here for more details.

Back from a long weekend in the Jackson Purchase

After three days in Fancy Farm, I had to get back on the bicycle this morning to work off some of those calories. Of course, I ate too much barbecue Saturday (and brought home some mutton for the freezer). Truth be told, I got an early start at St. Jerome Catholic Church’s fish fry on Thursday night. Yes, the folks in Fancy Farm can cook catfish as well as they can barbecue pork and mutton.

After a long, hot afternoon Saturday listening to political speeches, and a busy evening writing, sending in photos and preparing audio clips, three friends and I drove to Paducah for a late dinner. Aside from downtown Louisville, I doubt there’s a more-hopping place in Kentucky on a Saturday night than downtown Paducah. The streets were blocked off for pedestrians, and a band was playing down by the Ohio River. Downtown Padacah has restored many of its old commercial buildings as restaurants, shops and lofts. It’s a charming place.

I hope to get back there soon to take a closer look and see what Lexington could learn from Paducah about creatively reusing old buildings, bringing people downtown and using entertainment to pump up the local economy.

What makes public space work?

With all of the discussion about downtown development, I’ve been thinking about public space — what makes it work and what doesn’t.

For 10 years, I’ve worked across Midland Avenue from Thoroughbred Park, one of downtown Lexington’s jewels. The front of the park is a people magnet. I almost never walk or drive by without seeing someone there examining sculptor Gwen Reardon’s amazing horses and jockeys.

Most of the time, people are taking pictures, too. If you search the online photo-sharing site Flickr, you’ll see that people have posted dozens of pictures of that bronze horse race and the beautiful stone fence behind it. This time of year, the fountain also gets a good workout from hot children taking a dip.

The back side of the park simulates the rolling horse-farm fields of Central Kentucky. In the middle is a long lawn. The park has trees and nice benches, which are almost always empty. It looks like a great place to eat lunch on a pretty day, but I never see anyone do it. I think I’ve done it only once or twice. I wonder why I don’t go more often?

On a recent vacation trip to New York, I spent some time in Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library in Midtown. A few years ago, the park was rescued from drug dealers and prostitutes. The city fixed it up and turned it over to private management. There’s a beautiful lawn, often with a stage at the end, shade-tree alleys on each side, carts of books for people to read and free wireless Internet access.

This oasis in Manhattan’s concrete jungle is always full of people reading, relaxing, working on their computers or meeting with friends. A lot of things make Bryant Park work, but the key may be the little green bistro chairs. The park has hundreds of these elegantly simple, lightweight metal chairs with wooden-slat seats and backs. There also are matching tables and stools. People can move them anywhere around the park and group them in ways that meet their needs at the moment. (Good security and management keeps them from leaving the park.)

Walk into Bryant Park early on a summer morning and you’ll see lots of interesting arrangements of empty chairs and tables. You can almost see the activity and hear the conversations from the day before. Even when it’s empty, Bryant Park looks like a busy place where people love to be.

Often, it’s not the grand plan but the small touches that make the difference, whether they are exquisite works of public art or simple green chairs.

Passing of The Dame a blow to young people

As I watch The Dame on Main Street being demolished, I see a neglected, century-old building that could have been reused to give the proposed CentrePointe development more character and class.

But many others - people the age of my daughters - see something different: They see the loss of an important piece of their culture. To them, it’s almost as if somebody took a wrecking ball to the Lexington Opera House or the grandstand at Keeneland.

The circa 1901 building that housed The Dame is being demolished to make way for the CentrePointe development. Photo by Mark Cornelison

One of those people is Matt Jordan, 22, a University of Kentucky senior from Elizabethtown. I got to know him last year when he was a student in the journalism class I teach.

Jordan’s passion is music, and last month he wrote a touching piece in the Kentucky Kernel, UK’s student newspaper, about what The Dame meant to him and his generation.

“It was a cultural breeding ground for Lexington that can’t be bought, copied or easily replicated,” he wrote. “This one venue drew together punk rockers, bluegrass purists, Latin dancers, indie hipsters and average Joes … It was a gift while it lasted.”

When I called Jordan the other day, he had trouble putting into words what made The Dame special during the five years it existed. It wasn’t the building or location, although both were great. It was the way the club became a magnet for up-and-coming musicians and their fans, and the way it created a sense that buttoned-down Lexington could be a cool place for young people to live.

No urban planning expert planned it, no architect designed it, no developer built it. It grew organically and became an artistic success, if not always a financial one.

“I don’t want to say The Dame was the Lexington music scene, but it was pretty much the most important spot,” Jordan said, noting the club’s willingness to take risks on emerging bands and artists with limited appeal. “They were willing to book almost anybody once.”

While The Dame was most popular among over-21 college students and young professionals, it also attracted regular patrons in their 30s, 40s - and a few older ones.

The Dame’s owner, Tom Yost, said Tuesday he is actively looking for a new location either downtown or close to UK.

“We haven’t found the right fit yet,” Yost said. “Several landlords have come to us, and the support in the community has been off the charts.”

Jordan said he hopes it doesn’t take much longer for The Dame to reopen or a similar venue to emerge.

Fans standing in line at The Dame braved frigid temperatures to see Kenny Chesney perform in March. Chesney was the biggest act to play at the club, which took a chance on up-and-coming performers. Photo by David Stephenson

“I was in Athens, Ga., recently, and several musicians I know asked about The Dame and said, ‘So where do we play there now?’” he said. “The Dame was something that made people my age proud of Lexington and gave them a reason to stay here.”

Jordan noted that the fire marshal last February closed The Ice House, on Cross Street off West Maxwell, which was becoming a popular venue. It wasn’t zoned as a music club, and there were fire safety concerns. Local officials also have shut down performances in residential neighborhoods. Jordan doesn’t blame the officials; they’ve done the right thing, given the circumstances.

“But it just seems that this city keeps sabotaging itself,” he said.

There aren’t many places in Lexington for twentysomethings - and almost nowhere for those younger than 21 - to go for cutting-edge music.

However, Jordan is encouraged by growing support among city officials and business leaders for creating downtown entertainment venues. Good things are happening at Victorian Square, and ambitious proposals have been made for entertainment districts along Manchester Street and around Cheapside.

When Commerce Lexington took 175 local leaders to Austin, Texas, in early June, officials there stressed the huge role live music and entertainment play in their city’s economic vitality.

Austin civic and business leaders have figured out how to nurture music clubs and other venues, which often aren’t the most profitable enterprises, because they realize they help provide the quality of life sought by bright, creative people - especially up-and-coming young people. Those are the people who power the companies that can become a city’s economic engines of the future.

Many Lexington leaders seem to get it. There has been a lot of encouraging talk, and some good work done by the city’s Downtown Entertainment Task Force.

Matt Jordan is a bright, creative guy - the kind Lexington needs to attract and keep. While middle-aged professionals like me have been fretting about the future of the media business, Matt has been creating it. His blog, www.youaintnopicasso.com, covers popular music and attracts enough readers and advertising to pay his rent.

Jordan graduates from UK in December. He hasn’t decided whether to stay in Lexington, although he would like to. Where else might he go?

“I would love to move to Austin, Texas, which has tons of appeal,” he said.

There are many important questions to consider as we watch bulldozers finish clearing debris from what was The Dame. Here are three of them: Will The Dame reopen or be replaced? Will bright, young people find reasons to stay in Lexington? What more can we do to keep them?

READ music critic Walter Tunis’ reflections on the dame at his blog, The Musical Box.

Bringing Henry Clay’s ideals to a new generation

To many people, Henry Clay is a slightly familiar name from the distant past. Wasn’t he a politician? Didn’t he live in Lexington?

But to the 51 rising university seniors from 50 states and the District of Columbia who head home Saturday after spending a week in Lexington, Clay is now much more. Their study of his legacy may help them change the world someday.

At least, that’s the goal of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship’s first Student Congress, which was held at the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University. The center was created last year by the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation, which operates Clay’s Ashland estate on Sycamore Road.

Clay, who lived from 1777 to 1852, was one of America’s greatest statesmen. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. House and Senate, was speaker of the House and ran unsuccessfully for president several times.

Known as ”The Great Compromiser,“ he negotiated the treaty that ended the War of 1812 and engineered compromises in Congress that stalled the Civil War three times.

The center’s goal is to promote Clay’s ideals and skills of conflict resolution, conciliation and compromise in a nation and world that badly needs them.

”If you look at the world today and the polarization – red and blue – at home, we could certainly use more compromise and win-win conflict resolution skills,“ said advertising executive Bill Giles, who co-chairs the center with Thoroughbred breeder Robert N. Clay.

The effort – one of those big ideas that makes so much sense you wonder why somebody didn’t think of it sooner – was the brainchild of several Kentuckians. It has picked up heavyweight support, both locally and around the country. The national advisory committee is chaired by retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Nancy Kassebaum-Baker, who before retirement was an influential U.S. senator from Kansas.

Eventually, the organization hopes to leverage Clay’s legacy into a Lexington-based center for international conflict resolution, perhaps playing a role similar to that of the Carter Center in Atlanta. The first step is the Student Congress, which will become an annual event.

”It’s extremely timely, especially when you listen over the past decade to the decline in the quality of the national and global debate,“ said D.G. Van Clief, the center’s president and a former president of the Breeders’ Cup. ”This is a terrific opportunity to build awareness of these skills in young people, skills they’ll need to be good executives, jurists and diplomats.“

Carey Cavanaugh, director of UK's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, spoke to students participating in the first Student Congress of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship this past week. Photos by Tom Eblen

The students were nominated by U.S. senators and university officials. They were an impressive and diverse group, men and women of all races and political persuasions. About 75 percent were political science majors and minors, and they came to Lexington with considerable experience. Many had studied overseas or worked in congressional or governor’s offices.

The students spent a couple of days studying Henry Clay, his ideals and how they relate to today’s world.

They visited Ashland and heard from Clay scholars. They visited Frankfort to discuss state and local governance, then turned their attention to international affairs and the importance of diplomacy and dialogue.

Kassebaum-Baker spoke Wednesday night after a dinner at Three Chimneys Farm, and O’Connor sent videotaped remarks.

Carey Cavanaugh, a former ambassador and peace negotiator who directs UK’s Patterson School of Diplomacy, led much of the program and lined up a strong group of speakers.

They included a United Nations official now negotiating a dispute in Asia; New York Times and MSNBC political reporter John Harwood; and Andreas Kakouris, Cyprus’ ambassador to the United States.

Carey Cavanaugh, director of UK's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, left, talks with Mindy Shannon Phelps, executive director of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship, and D.G. Van Clief, the center's president.

”In the past five days, it’s hard to think of a corner of the world we haven’t touched on in the discussions,“ Cavanaugh said. ”They had a number of people talk to them who are dealing with world problems that are happening right now. It has given the students perspectives they wouldn’t have gotten at their schools.“

Indeed, in Cavanaugh’s debriefing with the students Friday, they raved about the program – but weren’t shy about offering suggestions.

”I learned more this week about foreign policy than I learned all last semester in foreign policy class,“ said Elizabeth Edwards, a student at Catawba College in North Carolina who had spent a year interning for former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. ”I’ve never met so many people my age who are so smart and love our country so much.“

Alex Bachari, a Loyola University music major who is the Louisiana campaign coordinator for Students for Barack Obama, said he felt inspired and empowered by Clay’s legacy and the Student Congress.

”You guys expect us to lead the Free World in a positive way,“ Bachari said. ”After coming to this program, I feel like I can go out and do anything I want. And I know everybody here feels the same way.“

Sitting in the sessions and listening to this remarkable group of young people ask questions and discuss issues, I got the impression that many of them will be running our government, corporations and major institutions in a couple of decades. And that’s a good thing.

Henry Clay would certainly be proud.

CentrePointe: Ignoring past won’t move us forward

The Webb Companies’ motto is ”Developing Tomorrow’s Landmarks.“

A more appropriate one might be ”Stuck in the 1980s.“

The company’s handling of the ­CentrePointe hotel-condo-retail project has reeked of 1980s development strategy: Plan in secret, avoid public input, cut back-room deals with key city leaders, bulldoze citizen opposition and bulldoze the site.

As a Herald-Leader editorial pointed out Wednesday, the whole fiasco has been a failure of civic leadership and public process.

It also has been a failure of imagination by developers Dudley and Woodford Webb and by Joe Rosenberg, who owns much of the block.

The wrecking machine has torn down several buildings and may soon come for the one truly historic building on the block, which has for years housed Rosenberg’s jewelry and pawnshop.

Built in 1826 as part of ”Morton’s Row,“ it is downtown’s second-oldest commercial building. If it looks dilapidated, you can blame Rosenberg’s neglect of the building.

Dudley Webb has said that none of the buildings on the block is truly historic. ”It’s not like Lincoln ever shopped there,“ he once said. (Actually, Abraham Lincoln may have shopped there. It was a store when he visited his in-laws in Lexington.)

Until the past couple of decades, buildings weren’t considered worthy of preservation unless they were associated with a famous person or event, or unless they remained architecturally intact and in their historic context.

Since the 1980s, though, preservationists and urban planners have seen another value for old urban buildings of character, even if they weren’t ”historic“ by the traditional definition. They don’t want to preserve them as relics, or save them as museums. They want to incorporate them, or their façades, into contemporary buildings with new uses.

If you’ve listened to Webb’s critics — from Vice Mayor Jim Gray to the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation to the citizens’ group Preserve Lexington — that’s what they’ve argued for all along.

Why? Such ”historic fabric“ reflects a city’s history and unique sense of place. And when old and new are woven together in creative ways, it makes for a more interesting — and valuable — development.

If that weren’t the case, you wouldn’t see that kind of project being done all over the country — and all over the world. The old buildings are those developments’ prime space for restaurants, bars and shops. That’s because they are unique and inviting, and they give a project a human scale.

I just came back from a few days in New York City and was amazed at the transformation of the SoHo neighborhood, where formerly dilapidated old industrial buildings with cast-iron façades have been turned into ritzy shops and some of the city’s most expensive loft apartments. Streets that were deserted in the 1980s are now filled with people.

By contrast, ­CentrePointe’s massive, monolithic design looks like what developers were building in Atlanta in the late 1980s when I was living there. Granted, many Lexingtonians would prefer that to some cutting-edge modern architecture. And it’s certainly better than all of the ugly 1970s-style buildings Lexington is saddled with downtown, on the UK campus and at schoolyards and office parks around town.

But as many architects, developers and construction executives have told me, CentrePointe could be so much better than the renderings Dudley Webb unveiled in March. And it would be a more successful project if he had engaged the public and gotten more creative professional advice.

That’s sad, because CentrePointe could define downtown Lexington for a century.

A development that could creatively blend Lexington’s colorful past with architecture that looks toward the future would be much more inspiring, especially to the bright young people Lexington needs to attract and retain. Those people may have been born in the 1980s, but they won’t stay long in a city that looks like it’s stuck there.

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Here are several examples of historic buildings and architecture mixed into contemporary redevelopment. Do you know of other good examples? Send me an email with a photo or link.

A closer look at the CentrePointe concepts

Beverly Fortune’s story Tuesday and my column Wednesday gave an overview of three alternative design concepts for CentrePointe that were developed over the weekend by students at the University of Kentucky’s College of Design working with prominent architects and designers from UK, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The goal of the 48-hour workshop wasn’t to develop finished designs or exact plans. It was to look at ways the 1.7-acre block could be used to accomplish the goals developer Dudley Webb has stated as well as to create inviting street-level space and a signature piece of architecture. The main goal, though, was to stimulate thinking and explore possibilities.

Here are some of the renderings the three teams came up with during the workshop, which was organized by Michael Speaks, the dean of the college, and architecture faculty member Drura Parrish. The workshop also included advisers from UK’s Historic Preservation Program.

The first group of concept designs was developed by a team led by UK faculty members Liz Swanson and Mike McKay. Swanson and McKay have been based in New Orleans for the past three years leading a UK design studio there. The second group was developed by the team led by Paul Preissner of Chicago, head of Quavirarch and a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The third group was developed by a team led by Heather Flood and Ramiro Diaz Granados of Los Angeles, partners in the design firm of F-Lab and faculty members at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Click on each photo to enlarge it.

Sound thinking behind strange-looking designs

I wasn’t surprised by the public’s negative reaction to three out-of-the-box designs dreamed up over the weekend as alternatives to Dudley Webb’s proposed CentrePointe tower.

A story in Tuesday’s Herald-Leader included renderings of the concepts developed during a marathon 48-hour workshop. The designs were done by three teams of students from the University of Kentucky’s College of Design working under prominent architects from UK, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The designs were unconventional. A couple of them were almost bizarre. They were nothing like traditional Lexington architecture. And they were nothing like Webb’s 1980s-style glass tower that has been criticized as too massive and bland to put in the middle of Lexington for the next century or so.

Readers posted dozens of comments about the designs on Kentucky.com — and most of them were scathing.

I understood the reaction. It was my first reaction, too.

Then I took a deep breath and thought again.

These weren’t finished plans, or even real ­proposals. They weren’t meant to be. They were creative ideas, developed quickly and offered up to spark other ideas that might lead to something special. That’s the way innovation works.

Like Webb, I was out of town Monday and couldn’t attend the students’ presentation. So I went over to UK on Tuesday to get a briefing from Michael Speaks, the college’s dean, who organized the workshop.

”It’s a lot of stuff to do in a couple of days,“ Speaks said before walking me through each concept. ”These are not final designs by any stretch of the imagination. But they show what can be done.“

Each team was told to confine itself to the block and try to stay true to the ­CentrePointe proposal — a hotel, luxury condos, a restaurant and retail space.

”These architects approached this in very different ways,“ Speaks said. But he noted that there were many things all of the designs had in common.

All three teams wanted to keep some of the historic buildings that have been a big part of the CentrePointe controversy and weave them into contemporary new construction. The most valued buildings were the Joe Rosenberg building, which dates to 1826, and the century-old building that housed The Dame music club.

All of the teams wanted to keep the Farmers Market on the block, and some added an amphitheater, a small park and other public space. Indeed, perhaps the most appealing part of all of the concepts was how they offered open, inviting pedestrian space at street level.

All three teams thought the project could be more effectively developed in phases, rather than all at once. And they all thought Webb was trying to cram too much square-footage onto the 1.7-acre block.

All chose to have several towers, rather than the one monolith Webb has proposed.

Speaks noted that in all of the designs, the towers were the wildest and least-finished part of the concepts — and the part that elicited the most negative public reaction.

”You look at these project concepts and think how crazy they are,“ Speaks said. ”Then watch the Olympics, look at what they’ve recently built in Beijing, and think again. They won’t look so crazy a month from now.“

By late afternoon Tuesday, more than 1,500 people had voted for their favorite design in the Kentucky.com poll. Webb’s design was leading the closest alternative 2-to-1.

”We’d be surprised if CentrePointe wasn’t winning, in a way,“ Speaks said. ”A lot of people want to support what’s easy, what they’re used to seeing, what’s being done elsewhere.“

Of course, the workshop process was all backward. This type of brainstorming session should have been done at the beginning, as has been done by developers of the proposed Lexington Distillery District project on Manchester Street.

Architecture workshops like this are intended to look at the location, the surrounding areas, and the needs a building is trying to satisfy, and to explore ways to meet those needs.

The goal is to produce a design that solves all of the development’s ”problems“ and adds something more: Value for an entire area, or even a city.

CentrePointe, on the other hand, was developed in secret and unveiled as a done deal. Webb has wanted no creative or public input. So it looks like we’re stuck with a piece of recycled architecture two decades out of date.

CentrePointe seems to be a done deal, and Webb might continue to thumb his nose at critics.

But public discussion surrounding CentrePointe and the awareness of downtown development it has created might pay off in the future.

”I don’t care how many people laugh and make fun of these projects,“ Speaks said as he paged through the three workshop concepts on his desktop computer.

Then he clicked on ­Kentucky.com to check the latest online poll results.

”If we can get 1,500 people to look at these ideas and think about design, then we’ve accomplished something.“