Legacy Crossing | Robert Hernández III

The grand entry way into Moscow Idaho! The location of this site is towards the South end of town where the first hint of downtown Moscow is slightly revealed to you. As you are progressing into town heading northbound towards Coeur d'Alene, you decline straight into the curve that gently guides one around Main street. While descending however, one can clearly see straight down the main street axis and beyond. My first immediate step towards developing this entire block was to use the main street axis to my advantage. After walking around that area a couple times I knew blocking it o with some mediocre structure was a detrimental design move for me and the city. I therefore accentuated the main street viewing corridor by defining the edges with structures and allowing the empty space in between to become something used by the city of Moscow. I did not surround the entire area with buildings however, but allowed for a natural space that could act at the same density to become a part of the urban fabric. This allows for a multifunctional urban space. The city and it’s citizens can use this area for events, markets, artists installations, design build installations, and finally provide adequate pedestrian circulation between South East Moscow and the university. By the time this is developed, I envision Moscow’s density to be almost double which means the farmers market would have greatly expanded down main street.I designed spaces to accommodate this expansion by allowing market spaces to be built or set up on the ground floor of the building that hugs the intersection of the two main datums. This is a really hot zone of urban activity and would be the starting or ending place of the farmers market. Another notable feature is the subterranean path that moves under the ever busy Jackson intersection. There is currently no pedestrian crossing to the East corner since Jackson is a one way street out of town and constantly has vehicle traffic. After several attempts to try and move pedestrians over the traffic, the solution finally presented itself to move in the opposite direction. Going under the traffic would allow for a smooth pedestrian crossing from the South East part of town and from the Troy paradise path through the natural urban edge into the rest of Moscow without having to divert down and around the car dominated asphalt jungle.