This is a conceptual ‘piazza’ design that I came up with for the Haywood Street site across from the St. Lawrence Basilica (a.k.a. “the pit”). The idea here is to create an active urban landscape focused on the Basilica as well as enhancing the entry to the Church - delineated as an oval fountain reflecting the oval design of the dome. Vehicular circulation would be organized via traffic circle on axis with the Basilica, achieved by re-aligning Haywood St., Page Ave. and Flint St. This concept also proposes to infill “the pit” with a mixed-use structure along with the lot adjacent to the Battery Park Apartments in order to create defining ‘edges’ of the piazza. This site has been of particular interest to me personally as I used this area for my final thesis project 30 years ago at the University of Tennessee School of Architecture.

Conceptual Site Plan Sketch - Haywood Street Redevelopment Downtown Asheville.