TEAM LEADER: Alex Krieger, the former chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, leads the consulting team for Plan Baton Rouge Phase Two, downtown’s newest planning effort.

The second community meeting for Plan Baton Rouge Phase Two was held on Monday, February 9, at the Louisiana State Museum in Downtown Baton Rouge and the meeting attracted more than 160 interested locals.

The crowd heard from several members of the Phase Two development team, including team leader Alex Krieger, of Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, who spoke about implementing the plan’s key elements and what it would mean for the future development of Downtown Baton Rouge. Other team members discussed strategies such as adding housing downtown, improving regional mobility and access, and “greening” downtown, or, specifically, adding trees, foliage and green space to the area. After the presentation, the team members answered questions from the public and lead break-out discussion groups.

“This turnout for this meeting was remarkable and the feedback we received was thoughtful and immensely valuable to our planning team,” said Elizabeth “Boo” Thomas, President and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence. “We believe that public input is absolutely critical to any planning process and that’s why are so pleased that we’ve received large and diverse crowds at each of our public meetings.”

Plan Baton Rouge Phase Two will be a Master Plan Update & Economic Strategic Plan that builds upon the original Plan Baton Rouge and develops directions for future growth Downtown. The goal of Phase Two is to help make downtown a more vibrant place to live, work, shop, dine, learn and play.

TEAM CHAN KRIEGER
Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, Cambridge, Mass.
Urban design and planning
Alex Krieger, project executive
Alan Mountjoy, project manager

HR&A, New York
Economic strategic planning
John Alschuler

James A. Richardson, Baton Rouge
Regional economic planning adviser

Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Denver
Traffic planning
Troy Russ

Reed Hildebrand, Watertown, Mass.
Landscape architecture
Doug Reed

WHLC Architecture, Baton Rouge
Local planning coordinator
Rex Cabaniss