Students explore revitalization ideas for downtown Lincoln retail

University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s fourth-year College of Architecture students collaborate with Lincoln city planners to explore revitalization ideas for downtown Lincoln retail to combat the lingering aftermath of COVID and other retail issues.   The public is invited to an exhibition that showcases the student concepts for a reimagined City Hall, scheduled for Friday, December 8, 10am-12pm at Lincoln’s Old City Hall, first floor lobby.

This semester, Assistant Professor Sonya Turkman’s studio has been collaborating with city planners Collin Christopher and Stephanie Rouse and local preservationist Dan Worth researching and exploring revitalization options.

“Old City Hall is a beautiful building with lots of history,” said Collin Christopher. “But to a large extent it's an underused space. When we think about the larger downtown environment, one of the goals of this project is to think about how this underutilized area can be given new life, and how we could use both the building and the block itself to stimulate local retail.”

The UNL collaborative studio consisting of several design teams from architecture, interior design and landscape architecture have developed concepts that endeavor to envision the building as a retail center that meets the needs of the Lincoln community while also incorporating the area’s architectural historical legacy and its social and cultural values.

“For our concept idea, my team is imagining the space as a health retail center,” said interior design student Courtney Goff. “We're calling it the health hub, and inside we're having a grocery store, pharmacy, a salad and juice bar, some workout studios that integrate nature by including an interior courtyard and an exterior healing garden.”

“Our students have worked hard and are very excited to showcase their ideas to the public,” said Assistant Professor Sonya Turkman. “This has been a great collaborative effort with the city, and I wanted to thank Collin Christopher, Stephanie Rouse, Dan Worth and all our community partners for this mutually beneficial project providing our students with invaluable experiential learning and an opportunity for professionals to see ideas from a fresh perspective and be engaged with the next generation of architects and designers.”

Funding from the Center for Transformative Teaching made the community exhibition onsite at Old City Hall possible.