Media Credit: Matt Nicholson In an effort to get community feedback on how Eugene's downtown area could be improved, four University student groups will host the Urban Park Design workshop this Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. at the Atrium Building at W. 10th Avenue and Olive Street. The workshop is open to the public and will focus on brainstorming redevelopment solutions for downtown's top eyesores, such as the vacant pit across the street from the Eugene Public Library.

Downtown Eugene is chock full of rights and blights, elements of the area that make it appealing and problems that desperately need to be fixed, according to at least one group of University students.

But they're not pleading to city government first. Instead, they are asking students and community members how they feel downtown could be improved.

Their theme is gradual revitalization, and the beginning is a park.

"We want everyday citizens who use downtown and want to make downtown work to come to the workshop," said University student Barry Gordon, president of the student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Four student groups are hosting the Urban Park Design workshop Saturday afternoon in an effort to bring the community voice to the redevelopment of downtown with the focus being how other cities have benefited from building a park in their own downtown regions.

The workshop will take place from 1 to 6 p.m. in the Atrium Building at W. 10th Avenue and Olive Street.

Groups will get together to make a top-10 list of the "rights and blights" of the nine-block area of downtown centered around the old Sears pit, and then "put a solution on the table," Gordon said.

The workshop will be a lead-up to a culminating design presented at the HOPES Conference, April 17 to 20.

Among the student groups hosting the event are the ASLA, the American Institute of Architecture Students, the Ecological Design Center and the group Live Move, a student transportation and livability group.

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