College Students Return on Wednesday With Plans for Downtown

After coming to Riverhead earlier this year, a group of students from the SUNY Center for Brownfield Studies, located up in Syracuse, are returning to Riverhead on Wednesday to present their findings after using the town as a test model for their projects. 

Eight separate teams from the school worked together with the goal to, "indicate how the project can catalyze reconsidering the core of Riverhead's Town Center," according to information provided by Chris Kempner, Riverhead's director of the Community Development Agency. The eight teams included second-year Master of Landscape Architecture students, fifth-year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture students, seniors in Environmental Engineering and seniors in the Urban Ecology Minor.

The presentations will take place from 2-5 at Town Hall.

Kempner said she hadn't seen the projects yet, so couldn't comment on how they may or may not be able to relate to a the town recently received. 

The school picked Riverhead as its site location in part because Preston Gilbert, the professor of the class, has a history with the town. Kempner said Gilbert's father owned a dry cleaning store downtown and has vivid memories of a lively Main Street.

The students from Syracuse will show their visions tomorrow on how that liveliness can be regained. The projects will each show the following: 

1. A biophilic element that emphasizes reconnecting Riverhead to the Peconic River, the Peconic Bay and the pine barrens; 
2. A landscape plan that addresses ecosystem integrity and ecosystem services that support human settlement; 
3. An economic development discussion that looks at the relationships among population/demographics, buildings and public spaces, re-densification, urban design, investment opportunities and quality of life.