Northampton State Hospital Mayors Institute on City Design 1990THE
MAYORS'
INSTITUTE
ON
CITY DESIGN
"Builders of great cities we all must be... "
Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
Meeting Vill Summary
April 29 - May 1, 1990
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Summary prepared by:
Keens Company
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(703) 237 -2900
William Keens
Project Director
Gregory Roby
Project Coordinator
Eliza Reilly
Project Associate
Final formatting, layout and production by:
Mayors' institute on City Design
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Beata Boodell Corcoran
Program Coordinator
Mary E. Madden
Assistant Program Coordinator
Sponsored by:
National Endowment for the Arts
Design Arts Program
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(c) 1990 by The Mayors' Institute on City Design
NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS
MAYOR DAVID B. MUSANTE, JR.
Population: 30,000
The City
Founded in 1654, Northampton isa small city located in western Massachusetts. Home
to Smith College, the city is the center of a five - college community that also includes
Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mt. Holyoke, and the Universityof Massachusetts.
Over the past ten years, numerous buildings have been renovated in the central business
district for arts and entertainment, restaurants, and shops, contributing to a lively
downtown. The city also has 1,300 acres of recreational land.
Education, hospitals, and human services are the primary employers in the area, but
Northampton hopes to encourage industry with a new industrial zone.
The Problem
A historic, 550 -acre, seventy - building state hospital complex in the city has been
declared surplus properly by the state, The city is in the position to control future
development of the site. Over 100 years old, in its heyday the hospital cared for 2,400
patients and operated its own farm, piggery, laundry, and power station. Part of the
complex will be retained by the Department of Heaith for approximately 110 patients.
Of the 550 acres, eighty-four acres are available for development, while the remaining
land is open space for conservation, recreation, and farmland. The city has undertaken
one feasibility study, which suggested an arts complex, housing, offices, discount sales
warehouses, and light industry as possible uses. Northampton needs assistance in
deciding what to do with the complex.
The Discussion
The group was overwhelmed with the magnitude of the opportunity facing Northampton.
They agreed that an arts complex, housing, and light industry are all possible uses for
the area, but noted that an arts complex, for example, would fill only one or two of the
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Northampton, Massachusetts
more than sixty available buiidings. In the end, the advice focused on the need for
involving a number of creative thinkers in a community -based planning process to
determine what combinations of uses would best serve Northampton.
Ideas
• Northampton is now comprised of four smaller villages; this could be developed
as yet another village.
• Other potential markets for future uses of the area include the elderly, research and
development, and high -tech industry.
• Northampton should bring in people with expertise to assess the buildings for
historical significance and forestall inappropriate demolition.
• The site is too big for a private developer to handle; it needs an institutional
supporter. This space could be great for a university.
• Northampton has an opportunity to develop a twenty -year, world- class, mixed use
plan. It is too big to do all at once — develop the property one piece at a time.
The property should be Iooked at as a whole, before breaking it into many little
units. Preserve the lovely physical layout.
• It will be very important to bring top creative minds from around the country for
meetings about the site, to help local citizens visualize the possibilities.
Before a master plan is developed, there should be a period of goal- setting and
public discussion for the citizens of Northampton. The public discussion might best
be catalyzed by bringing in four or five model proposals for consideration.
• Look at how Santa Cruz proceeded after the earthquake. Working with the
university, the city sponsored weekly lecture series with people from around the
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Northampton, Massachusetts
country on possible ways to rebuild. After the lectures, they held community
workshops, then brought in planners.
• Itwould be wise, politically, to convene such a symposium cooperatively with Smith
College, which adjoins the properly. Work closely with the college in other
respects as your proceed.
• Bring in a number of private developers from around the country and get them
competing to come up with the best ideas..
• Developers might not be appropriate for this project, at least not until the public
discussion involving the citizens has taken place.
• Go to the National Endowment for the Arts for funding of the symposium and
other planning meetings,
• The Urban Land Institute has a program of panel advisory groups that will bring
people in to look at a project.
• The site is so big it will swallow up little ideas.
• One way to deal with the size would be to break the 550 acres into village -sized
parcels, thereby creating a community of potential villages.
• Arts festivals with lots of activity and performances are more attractive to tourists
than museums.
• It will be important to keep the farming component active within the city.
• Create a public/private corporation with state sponsorship to develop the complex,
• A first priority should be a careful inventory of your physical assets. Then begin
building a public relations program, so that communications are not a problem,
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Northampton, Massachusetts
• The possibilities are endless: retirement villages, artist communities, health,
education, research and development, recreation, housing, a conference center,
mill -style retailing.
9aquelin Robertson: Summation
"Northampton was probably the most shocking proposal ever to come to us. You have
a great college town, in a state that has a very sophisticated electorate, for whom
education, research and development, a quality environment, and recreation are high
on the agenda, in the middle of this ideal, academical town is a huge piece of real estate
with beautiful land and recyclable, existing buildings. An embarrassment of riches —
no one knew what to say. The bureaucratic answer would be no response.
You could have six villages, and you could do anything with any of them. You already
have education and a good downtown. The size of the project is againstyou in the short
term, but for you in the long term. The advice you got from almost everyone was to
use Smith College and the city as cosponsors for a series of discussions on what should
be done. And from the results of these discussions, undertake a major planning
operation. At a national level, this is a fabulous opportunity. What needs to happen
is for you to get together with Smith College, organize an idea - gathering forum, and
develop a series of planning proposals."
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