.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} “Everything about the renovated park draws visitors in. Its north side now boasts an amphitheater large enough to hold an orchestra and public seating for 2,000. Grab an espresso at the café on the east side or get half-price theater tickets on the west side at TIX. The square even features granite pedestals upon which street entertainers can perform …”

That’s an online description of Union Square in San Francisco, a place mentioned by downtown planner Erin Olson-Douglas when she talks about what Nollen Plaza could become. Go to www.tripadvisor.com, search for Union Square and feast your eyes on photos of the place, which was renovated a few years ago.

It’s enough to make any downtown booster envious.

Yes, there are some fairly important differences. Union Square is surrounded by major upscale retail outlets and, well, San Francisco. Nollen Plaza isn’t.

But we don’t have to compare our gathering spot to Union Square or Chicago’s Millennium Park, with their larger size and tourist-friendly surroundings. The important thing is that our little plaza has the potential to be the center of a neighborhood unlike anything else in the state of Iowa.

It needs to provide more atmosphere, some cozy spots, and then the rest of the neighborhood will find it easier – maybe irresistible – to step up and do the same.

A handful of street performers are trying to make downtown Des Moines more lively than downtown Marshalltown or Fort Dodge – mostly in the skywalks. A few food vendors are trying right on the plaza – in the summer. Bruce Gerleman is trying with a new oyster bar restaurant in the works for the Homestead Building, right across Locust Street from the plaza. The fine new restaurants in the old Kirkwood Hotel – Zen and Azalea – are Nollen neighbors, too.

We don’t seem to have a lot of prospects for shopping in the immediate area, although we have plenty of experts on that subject just down the street in the East Village. But if we had a first-rate plaza to accompany excellent dining and the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, right there we would have one of the most notable neighborhoods in the state.

Western Gateway Park is fine and will become a permanent photo op when the sculpture garden arrives, but it might never be a hub of daily activity. A good place for lunchtime strolls, and a great spot for the annual Arts Festival, but a stretch of grass is a landscape, not a hangout.

The Principal Riverwalk will be wonderful, but only for the people who make a point of getting over there and putting it to use.

Nollen Plaza can be a place for thousands of downtown workers and residents to drop by almost any time. Blizzard events excepted.

When I talk to the people involved with planning a redo, I always mention the weather. They generally dismiss it. This is the climate we have, and there’s nothing to do about it.

Or is there? The perfect design could give Nollen a weather edge over Gateway and the Riverwalk. A small space surrounded by buildings creates the opportunity to make the elements slightly more manageable. We might find ways to bump up a few degrees on nice winter afternoons with features that stop the wind and gather the sunlight, and drop down a few degrees in the summer with shade that’s easy to grab instead of easy to avoid like the current grove.

Charlie Edwards, president of the Cowles Foundation, wants the plaza to be an information center. Maybe, but the Internet seems to be cornering that market.

Edwards also wants a striking array of art, and that idea does resonate – the delightful Crusoe Umbrella has been lonely long enough. Union Square appears to be an engaging place with its share of artwork, and Millennium Park has the kind of art installations almost everyone can “get.” No random chunks of metal welded together there. The Crown Fountain and the Cloud Gate (the reflective “bean”), to name just two features, pull people like gravity.

We’ll never have Michigan Avenue or Fisherman’s Wharf. But the late David Kruidenier and friends were wise enough to save a spot for us back in the 1970s, and it really is time to take it to the next level.