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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Panel Uneasy About Plan To Reroute Skywalk Advisory Committee Questions Design; Nordstrom Defends Position

The downtown Spokane Public Library’s skywalk shouldn’t be rerouted into River Park Square’s new garage, members of an advisory committee to the City Council said Wednesday.

“That has to be resolved,” said Fred Hurand, chairman of Eastern Washington University’s urban planning department and a member of the city’s Design Review Committee.

“How are they going to make that connection?” Hurand asked. “I am a proponent of the project but I think there’s a lot that needs to be done in terms of design.”

“I don’t think access should be through the parking garage,” said committee member Joanne Shiosaki. “I don’t think it’s customer-friendly.”

The committee reviews the design of proposed projects and makes recommendations to the City Council.

Under the planned redevelopment of River Park Square, the library skywalk would be rerouted through the development’s parking garage.

The skywalk currently attaches to a building scheduled for demolition. A new Nordstrom store will be built in its place.

The $100 million project also would include a 24-screen cinema and other shops and restaurants. Construction is due to begin in the spring.

Nordstrom has said it does not want skywalks attached to its building because they would limit retail display space. The 127,500-square-foot store planned for River Park Square already is 100,000 square feet smaller than the average Nordstrom built today, said Brooke White, a Nordstrom spokesperson.

“We feel that extra entrances will cut into the ability to merchandise the store,” White said.

Although committee members said they support the project, they raised several questions about its design. The committee decided to ask River Park Square developers for more information before giving its recommendation to the City Council.

“I don’t have confidence that we are dealing with a ‘to-be-built’ plan here,” said committee member Jared Miller. “This looks awfully conceptual.”

River Park Square’s project manager Bob Robideaux and two architects responded to the committee’s concerns at another design review meeting two weeks ago.

No project representative attended Wednesday’s meeting.

At the previous meeting, Robideaux said the development team had gathered design input from 160 Spokane people in 10 focus groups. He said the project is under a tight deadline now and must move quickly to begin construction.

Other concerns the committee expressed include: whether the development’s street facade will be inviting to customers, whether the design will fit with the rest of downtown, and what the new Nordstrom building will look like.

The group has seen no designs for the new Nordstrom building.

“That’s at least half the main facade we know nothing about,” Hurand said.

Robideaux said at the meeting two weeks ago that the Nordstrom building would be an attractive design.

“I think you should understand that it’ll be a Nordstrom and it’ll be very high quality,” Robideaux said.

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