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LAGI Willimantic
Invited Competition

Learn more about LAGI Willimantic and the design site:
LAGI Willimantic: a Blueprint for Socioeconomic Development in Post-Industrial Cities

The following three teams
were invited through an
RFQ process to participate in LAGI Willimantic:

Rio Iluminado 
(Winning Design)

PIRIE ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS
multi-disciplinary practice in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design/place-making, interpretive design, and sustainability

LINDSAY SUTER
architect & sustainability expert

GAR WATERMAN
sculptor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eddy Line Team

HÖWELER + YOON ARCHITECTURE
architecture

GRAY ORGANSCHI
architecture

PUSH STUDIO
sculptural landscape

NSPIREGREEN
community engagement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar Boombox Team

CLAUDIA DINEP
landscape architect + ecological designer

KRISTIN SCHWAB
landscape architect + professor of landscape architecture

TED EFREMOFF
social practice artist + professor of art

MATT MACUNAS
public policy + green energy advisor

+plus a renewables experts team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design Guidelines

Project Background

On March 3, 2017, the Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) a Eastern Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Office of the Arts hosted the Land Art Generator for a workshop in Willimantic.

Participants in this afternoon “think tank” put their heads together around the design challenges of the WWP site.

During the workshop, community members investigated how renewable energy technologies can be incorporated into public art and creative placemaking opportunities so that the intervention on this exciting site will bring the greatest benefit to the city and its people.

The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was an outcome of this community workshop.

Design Site
Willimantic Whitewater Partnership (WWP) has recently remediated a prominent site in the heart of Willimantic, Connecticut and prepared it for development. Soon it will be home to a new whitewater park and other public amenities that WWP envisions will be powered with on-site renewable energy.

LAGI is working with WWP in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) at Eastern Connecticut State University, and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Office of the Arts.

The WWP site offers the perfect opportunity to integrate renewable energy, with a richness of resources, including hydro, solar, and wind. The site, in such a prominent location in downtown Willimantic, is ideally situated to be a catalyst for economic and community development.

Interestingly, there is a history of energy around the property. Hydro power provided much of the energy used to run the Smithville cotton mills. Two generations of dam expansions provided increases in power output. There still remains the option to bring small scale run-of-the-river hydro power generation back to the site.

 

Partners

Willimantic Whitewater Partnership

Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE)
at Eastern Connecticut State University

Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Office of the Arts