WSU students design access

A group of WSU architecture students rolled into the city of Palouse March 5 to begin a month-long project that draws up ideas for r access along the North Palouse river.

For the next few weeks, students in small groups will make the drive from Pullman to Palouse to lay out ideas for foot bridges and paths along the river.

The city will examine all the proposals at the end of the semester and pick a handful for Palouse citizens to vote on as a community.

Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove said the students’ work will deal more in landscape design, using the more visual aspect of landscaping a city.

The projects will not involve specific blue-lines for river access.

The main goal is for students to develop more access to the river, Echanove said. Because the North Palouse River runs directly through Palouse, making it available to the rest of the city is important, he said.

Palouse citizen Chris Boyd owns a stretch of land along the river and invited students to consider a project that would extend the Shady Lane trail around his property which borders the river.

Such a path could meet up with foot bridges later on down the river.

Most of the 22 students are juniors in WSU’s landscape architecture program. They are taking a recreation design course taught by WSU professor Ole Sleipness.

“I would like my students to generate conceptual designs for the River Walk, complete detailed designs of key areas along the path such as crossings, nodes, and other areas of interest, and think through possible finished materials, fixtures and signage,’ Sleipness said in a letter to Echanove.