The time has come for iQuilt to grow up.
And it needs money, lots of money.
The City of Hartford’s initiative to tie together cultural assets to make Connecticut’s capital city a more livable and walkable community will reach the end of its planning phase Jan. 10. On that date, two years of designing and planning will be finalized and presented as the city looks to implement the iQuilt’s various projects over the next several years.
Bringing those projects — both large and small — to fruition will take millions for from the city, state and federal governments, along with plenty of private funding.
“This is a long-term project. It is not turn-the-key and everything changes,” said David Panagore, City of Hartford chief operating officer and director of development services. “This is both big projects and little projects. These are multi-year engagements.”
In 2010, the initiative was adopted into the City of Hartford’s 10-year master plan, and iQuilt will serve as a guide for city officials as they develop and improve downtown.
iQuilt’s many projects center around improving Bushnell Park and the surrounding area so residents and visitors want to spend more quality time in the city.
The project designers will release the final plan in a breakfast with Mayor Pedro Segarra at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 10 at the MetroHartford Alliance. The plan includes daylighting a stream running under Bushnell Park; narrowing Jewel Street; extending the park to Main Street by narrowing or eliminating Gold Street; and tying together the plaza in front of the Travelers Tower on Main Street to better interact with Wadsworth Athenaeum.
The initiative also calls for improvements to the geographical relationships among Hartford’s cultural attractions, such as Wadsworth, the XL Center, Union Station and The Bushnell performing arts center.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm and momentum for the project, and we believe that will translate into the dollars needed for implementation,” said Ronna Reynolds, executive vice president for The Bushnell.
iQuilt already received $800,000 total in funding from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. That money was used for planning, design and some small events, such as the Hartford Innovations Festival.
The city has its sights set on the higher levels of funding to make the iQuilt initiatives a reality. In December, the city put in for a $21.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER III program (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) to fund roadway and streetscape improvements from Union Station to the edge of Bushnell Park and to the XL Center.
That iQuilt initiative wasn’t funded in the $511 million worth of TIGER III awards announced on Dec. 15 — although the Stamford Transit Center received $10.5 million. The effort represents the type of funding iQuilt needs to go from paper to practice.
The largest chunk of funding likely will come from federal government agencies, such as U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the state and the city, Reynolds said. Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra announced Dec. 19 that the Coltsville Historic District — one of downtown’s cultural assets — would receive $5 million to expand its public open space, which is one of the iQuilt initiatives.
In addition to securing private funding, iQuilt looks to leverage private projects into the overall initiative. For example, iQuilt calls for a renovation of Travelers Plaza at the corner of Main and Gold streets, owned by The Travelers Cos. As the insurance giant looks to upgrade its Hartford facilities, iQuilt head designer Doug Suisman is working with Travelers on revitalizing the plaza.
“iQuilt is very much going to be a public-private partnership,” Reynolds said.
iQuilt already moved beyond the planning stages in a few areas in 2011, such as sponsorship of Hartford’s Winterfest in Bushnell Park. The sponsorship included the opening of an ice skating rink from Nov. 25 to Feb. 20, latching onto the larger concept of bringing people into downtown Hartford.
“I certainly think this could be a permanent rink for Bushnell Park,” said Alan Looper, who lives in downtown Hartford and visited the ice rink frequently in December. “They could do so much with the park.”
Jessica Negron, a New Britain resident who came into Hartford specifically for the rink in December, said if the city had more amenities such as the rink, it could bring in a greater diversity of visitors who stay longer.
“It would be nice if they did more family-type activities,” Negron said.
Hartford encompasses many of these goals in iQuilt — such as separate walking paths hitting culture and historic locations — hoping that downtown becomes a greater source of pride for residents and a place that out-of-towners want to visit and stay frequently.
“This is about how we define our downtown to each other,” Panagore said.
