PORT ANGELES — Armed with construction paper, crayons, triangles, rulers, glue sticks and pipe cleaners, about 40 people designed their own Oak Street hotel and conference center.
Instead of having a regular give and take discussion with his audience over the new designs for the proposed four-story, $14 million, 150-room waterfront facility, its architect and developer, Randal Jay Ehm, held a design workshop Thursday night.
“This is a significant element of the downtown redevelopment process so it was important to involve the public,” Ehm told the crowd in the meeting room at Clallam Transit’s headquarters building.
“We want as much of your input as you are willing to give. We are willing to listen.”
He and an associate handed out page after page of his architectural drawings, along with the crayons and other supplies, and told the group to give him feedback — right down to completely redoing his designs if they wanted.
The audience — which included 11 students from Port Angeles High School teacher Dave Uranich’s Contemporary Issues class — went to work in teams for the next 45 minutes.
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The rest of this story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
