If all goes to plan, the land that housed the Earl K. Long hospital for more than 40 years could be re-designed based on the ideas of two LSU students.
Landscape architecture graduate students Xian Li and Ziding Liu each designed a plan for the newly vacant Earl K. Long hospital site on Airline Highway in north Baton Rouge. The students presented their designs to area politicians and citizens at a meeting Sept. 10.
The hospital was closed in 2013 after LSU decided not to build a replacement for the outdated facility.
When the students presented their plans earlier this month, the community members in attendance took a survey about which aspects they liked or disliked. Once that information is compiled, both students will work together on one final plan.
The students got involved after state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, contacted the university, said Diane Jones Allen, a landscape architecture instructor at LSU. Because the hospital was part of the LSU system, Broome wanted to ensure the project was a community-effort.
Allen said all the work will be pro-bono, free, until the community’s plan is complete and the steering committee hires a professional designer. The students’ work doesn’t take away from the professionals, but instead helps stimulate the product, she said
The community responded well to the plans and is eager for the work to begin, Allen said, but the actual construction is still far off.
Liu and Li also attended a meeting in March where community members said what they would and would not like to see in the site. Many citizens wanted to see day care facilities and family restaurants, but did not want buildings such as check-cashing businesses or prisons.
The committee over the project will hire a designer who will receive the recommendations. The designer may completely change the plan, Allen said, but they still will provide a clear example of what the community wants.
“Instead of just telling the developer, the community says, ‘Here is our plan,’” Allen said. “This is a really good process.”
The two designs featured many similar aspects, such as restaurants, retail locations and open space. Liu’s plan shows a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market or a farmers’ market, while Li’s incorporates some residential space.
Allen said the general consensus was that the community wanted a mixed-use lot, which has both retail and service locations, because there aren’t many retail locations in the area. She said Perkins Rowe was mentioned frequently during the meetings.
Both plans also have driveways leading into the surrounding residential area and onto Airline Highway. Allen said it was important for the community to feel like the site was connected to them.
The work is done in their free time, Allen said, but the students said the experience has given them a better idea of how to incorporate the community’s needs into a design.
“In school we get comments from our professor and our classmates, but this time we get the ideas from the residents there,” Li said. “When it’s finished, you have to listen to their feedback, so you have a better idea for next time.”