Students who have recently ventured into town for some food at Halo Pub or Olives have probably noticed the construction zone at the corner of Witherspoon and Wiggins streets. By this time next year, the materials piled there will be transformed into a public plaza, funded in part by the University.
The plaza is part of a larger development plan, which includes a parking garage and the George and Estelle Sands Building — the new home for the Princeton Public Library.
"The plaza was identified as a need by the former Borough Mayor Marvin Reed," said Pam Hersh, the University's director of community and state affairs, "and the current Mayor Joseph O'Neill thought it was an excellent idea to contribute toward the plaza's fixtures and furnishings."
The University will be contributing $150,000 to the plaza. The offer, as yet unofficial, will be formally presented at a Borough Council meeting in early April.
In addition to the money for the plaza, the University has already provided $500,000 for the library's construction.
"The University has had a long and proud tradition of contributing to major capital community projects during the past decade," Hersh said. "This current contribution continues this tradition."
University employees also helped library staff set up computer lines for the new building. "Technical staff from the University have been just terrific," O'Neill said.
The development was geared toward providing more parking in the downtown area, although a garage was chosen because it would free up space for other purposes.
"In order to gain space in front of the library, we had to stack cars," O'Neill said. The garage will add about 250 spots.
The University has acutally donated about $50,000 more than the original estimate.
"The extra money allows the Borough more flexibility in choosing the furnishings," Hersh explained.
The plaza furniture, paid for by the University, will include benches and chairs, "so that people who want to have their brown bag lunch can sit out under the trees," O'Neill said.
Another new building, part of a different development project, will include a restaurant with outdoor seating. The mayor suggested that the finished plaza might give passersby an impression of "a little Paris."
University money will also pay for a bus shelter and grates for the twelve trees that will be in the plaza. The bus stop was not in the original plan, but "seems to be critical for the success of the project," Hersh said.
The grates, consisting of concentric metal rings that can be removed as the tree grows, will protect the roots from pedestrians, O'Neill said. The design for the grates is based on a model of the carbon atom, he added.
O'Neill said he hopes to use the remainder of the money to pay for a substantial divider between the library building and the nearby power station — "something more than a chain-link fence."
The plaza is currently being used as a staging area for construction of the library building and garage. Both should open by the end of April, O'Neill said. The plaza itself will be finished "certainly by next spring," he added.
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