MSU Students Pitch Proposals for Evergreen Property
Students of Victoria Morckel’s (Ph.D.) urban design class gathered Thursday (Dec. 7) in a small classroom on Michigan State University’s (MSU) campus to present their final projects. But this semester, Morckel presented her students with a unique challenge: they were assigned to submit a land use and design proposal for the Evergreen Avenue site in downtown East Lansing.
The Evergreen site is currently a fenced off dirt lot awaiting development, and has been for more than a decade due to challenges with the site’s landscape, lack of parking and odd placement on Albert Street and Evergreen Avenue. Former developer John McGraw told the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), owner of the property, in May that the site is “an island.”

Prior to the assignment, Morckel made sure students understood the history of the site’s failed proposed developments, as well as its context within the East Lansing community.
“When we’re talking about [land] use, we want to consider context,” Morckel said. “So I asked students to think about what is around the site. What are the densities of the properties surrounding it? What is the appropriate height for any structures that might be proposed for the site?”
It was also important to Morckel that students understood their projects had very real implications for East Lansing’s development.
“I also charged students with considering the challenges that exist on this site,” Morckel said. “Thinking about, how can we use design to solve urban planning or design challenges? Considering things like public health, safety, walkability, that goes beyond just aesthetic.”
To up the ante, several DDA members and city staff members were in the audience, including City Planner Landon Bartley, Community and Economic Development Administrator Heather Pope, and Interim Director of Planning, Building, & Development Annette Irwin. In attendance from the DDA were Chair Mike Krueger, Vice Chair Luke Hackney and member Jacqueline Babcock.

Over the course of two hours, seven student groups presented their proposals to DDA members and city officials. Suggestions included using the space for additional apartment buildings, a plaza featuring local shopping and restaurants, or an events center for community and the arts. Students took into account the desire of community members for gathering spaces, the economic viability of the proposed constructions and the need for parking in limited space.
“This project emerged as a response to the community input to revitalize this area,” MSU master’s degree student Oliver Gomez said of his group’s proposal. “Something not necessarily related to student housing or a project that was predominantly commercial.”
Gomez’s group proposed a “creative nexus,” featuring a makerspace for artists to rent studio space, an extensive outdoor area and amphitheater, and spaces for local coffee shops or restaurants. Gomez said the space “aims to transform urban spaces into vibrant hubs for artistic expression and collaboration.”
Students also emphasized the site’s importance as a transitional space between Valley Court Park and East Lansing’s quickly expanding downtown. Sophomore Eli Flikkema named the site as critical in bridging the current “urban canyon effect” on Albert Street.
An urban canyon occurs when taller buildings flank both sides of the street, creating a canyon like effect. Flikkema pointed to the new constructions of the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) on Albert Avenue and Graduate Hotel on Evergreen Avenue as contributors to this effect. His presentation with classmate Myron Ocansey proposed a five-story apartment building to ease the visual transition for pedestrians.
Throughout the presentations, DDA members offered feedback and asked students questions about practical points in their designs. Several DDA members harped on parking as a critical point in any potential development, pointing to the already limited parking spaces in the downtown area and contention about which businesses get to utilize them.

Students had varied approaches to the challenge of parking. Some groups looked to incorporate parking into their site design in the form of a lot or garage. Others emphasized the walkability of downtown or focused on incorporating the CATA bus system into their design.
“We wanted to encourage [decreased car use] and increased use of the CATA system,” Flikkema said of his project. “We also want to build a transitional place that creates engagement incentives. In the single family housing neighborhoods just northwest of downtown, even if [families] live only a quarter mile or a half mile away, they’ll still get in their cars and drive downtown… when it’s only about a 15- or 20-minute walk. So we wanted to ensure that the City of East Lansing is not a resident’s house, their car and their destination. It’s their entire journey through that city, and we want to ensure that that city is somewhere they want to be.”
Ultimately, the presentations were a space for DDA members to hear fresh perspectives on a long-contested site, ideas based in students’ creativity and less encumbered by cost constraints and parking requirements.
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