I recently attended the West Windsor Town Council meeting where the proposed facility improvement plan was presented (see story, page 1). After carefully reviewing the recently posted PowerPoint presentation of the project, my first thought was, “What were they thinking?”
Currently a section of the Arts Council building, the old firehouse, stores emergency vehicles and equipment acquired after 9/11. The Arts Council would like that space, and the township would like a new facility for their fire and emergency services division. Additionally, the post office at the municipal complex is underutilized, and there are approximately 3,000 square feet of unused space. The administration has proposed that the fire and emergency services division be moved into the empty space at the post office and that a warehouse be built to house their equipment. Unfortunately, their plan is simply poorly conceived.
The plan shows a massive $600,000 warehouse to be built in the backyard of the senior center extending from the existing chain link fence surrounding the post office parking lot to the gazebo and from Municipal Drive all the way back to the rear entrance to the senior center. The structure, larger than the senior center or the post office, would be an eyesore, dominating the Municipal Drive entrance to the municipal complex, and stand, like a giant barren wall, directly in front of the library parking lot access. It would eliminate the two sidewalks that now allow access to the library from both the senior center and the front of the post office, require the removal of at least 15 trees between the senior center gazebo and the post office parking lot chain link fence, and preclude any further expansion of the senior center.
So as not to be entirely negative, I propose an alternative, holistic plan. The fire and emergency services division and its warehouse should be located in the back of the municipal complex, either between the police station and the Twin W building or near the firehouse. This way all the public safety divisions would be consolidated while the warehouse would be, for the most part, hidden from view. The post office facility could then house all or part of the human services department, now partially located in the trailers, which are to be eliminated as part of the municipal building renovation. Eventually the chain link fencing surrounding the post office parking lot could be removed, opening up the space and creating a “community triangle,” which would include the library, senior center, human services department and, if the post office closes, perhaps a township youth center.
It is too bad that the architect didn’t conduct a design charrette and include representatives from all the stakeholders, not only the administration and the emergency services department, but also representatives from the senior center, library, and nearby residential neighborhood prior to finalizing their plans. While secrecy and top-down decision making are sometimes essential and productive, in this case it has led to a poorly designed project lacking sensitivity to aesthetics, needs of the broader community and consideration of the impact on the surroundings.
Kelvin Werth
Courtney Drive,
Princeton Junction
