BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — Village officials recently reviewed the engineering plan for the construction of Brooks Street.

At their meeting Monday, Oct. 8, the village board of trustees got a comprehensive review of a couple concept plans for the new street which will connect Raymond and Depot as part of an overhaul at the Market Square Mall and other work on the block.

Fred Hanss, the village’s planning and development director, told village board members that the village had asked architecture firm LaBella Associates, represented locally by architect Brooks Washburn whose offices are at 12 Depot, to produce a couple conceptual renderings of the street which will take over the duties of the decommissioned Liberty Street, essentially a passthrough that connects Depot and Raymond.  

Washburn, a well-known local architect who recently affiliated with LaBella, is the owner of the Market Square Mall and is planning various revisions to the building. The work dovetails with the village’s state Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects in the Market Street area.

LaBella Associates was the successful bidder that secured the design contract for the project from the village.

Andy Rymph, LaBella landscape designer, presented two concepts for the street to the village.

The new street, which would pass near the Market Square building, required a land swap between the village and Washburn. The street would provide a new connector roadway between Depot and Raymond through space that is currently not a dedicated roadway, but a parking area.

Both designs involve construction of a two-lane roadway with sidewalks and trees, explained Rymph.

One concept attempts to maximize parking by incorporating spaces on one side and a sidewalk on the other, while the other is more like an urban street with sidewalks on both sides and street lights on only one side.

“In totality (with both designs)… we are netting more parking than we currently have,” Rymph told the board.

Initially, both designs ended up being slightly more expensive than the village’s budget. However, Rymph said designers had worked on the concepts to bring them more in line with the price point.

The project is being funded by an 80/20 village match grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission.

The project work still needs to go to bid before a final cost is known.

Village board members reviewed the concepts and discussed the parking spaces that would be realized from the project, sidewalks and how the project would tie into DRI projects and the village’s plan to build a pedestrian bridge from Garner Park to Fall Island.

Village board members agreed to further review the two concepts presented and submit their preference within 30 days.