Downtown Topeka prior to the Kansas Avenue road and infrastructure renovation.
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Searching for change Topeka had been looking for decades at ways to revitalize the community and create real growth. The Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce SCOTT GALES, s p o n s o r e d President of Architect numerous intercity One and a proponent visits to observe of revitalization said, communities such "We should have an amazing downtown." as, Springfield, Oklahoma City, Omaha, and Des Moines, which had and professions, said ‘yes’ this is what we successfully rejuvenated their downtown want.” spaces. Unfortunately, enthusiasm alone Scott Gales, president of Architect wasn’t enough to move a project of this One, was part of the group who visited magnitude forward. So a year passed these communities. He said it quickly with no discernible progress. became apparent that Topeka was actually That all changed after a 2008 in a much better starting place than strategic planning meeting most of the cities they toured had when more than 100 people been in initially. gathered to investigate “We just had this mental various options to improve block that it couldn’t happen in downtown Topeka. Topeka,” Gales said. “As a group we The group broke recognized that we love living here. out into smaller WILLIAM BETETA, former That we should have an amazing workgroups, each executive director of downtown because Topeka is a great tasked with a Heartland Visioning, helped place to live and work.” different issue to Topeka find its vision. Proponents for a revitalized address. Scott Gales, downtown quickly came to realize that Architect One; Mike Morse, Kansas without a common vision in place, Commercial Real Estate Services; Neil nothing would probably ever change. In Dobler, Bartlett & West; William Beteta, stepped Heartland Visioning to help the Heartland Visioning; and Vince Frye, community find its vision for Topeka. The Downtown Topeka Inc. found themselves organization held numerous community tasked with the issue of office space meetings to identify and prioritize areas downtown. that residents felt could be improved to They took about five minutes to make Topeka a better place to live and talk about the lack of office space and work. The overwhelming consensus: A decided nothing could be done about vibrant downtown. that problem until the larger issues of “A groundswell of enthusiasm infrastructure and dying businesses were followed those meetings,” said William resolved. The first priority, to them it Beteta, executive director of Heartland seemed, was the road. Visioning at the time. “People across the From there, the conversation turned community, from different generations to “what if.”
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What if we can convince the City to redo the street? What would the road look like? What if we did something fun with the road? They discussed what they had seen in other communities and determined that every vibrant downtown they had encountered was focused around local restaurants and retail shops. Gales began drawing sketches on the back of napkins, and, by the end of the session, their presentation to the rest of the group outlined their idea for a downtown with a meandering avenue and a variety of gathering spaces. “At the time, we didn’t really know what it meant, but we knew we were building excitement for transforming downtown,” Gales said. Gales and Morse did dozens of presentations to organizations all across the community to present the ideas behind a revitalized downtown. “How do you get others to come to Topeka to buy in, if you don’t NEIL DOBLER provided buy in yourself?” leadership and insight as it they asked. was realized that the future P e o p l e of Downtown all starts with started talking the road. about the