A space at the corner of Broadway and Sprigg Street has been transformed into a student-art showcase garden by a historic preservation major at Southeast Missouri State University.

Lydia Ness, a senior at Southeast, recently finished the urban rejuvenation project, titled "Bridging Space through Placemaking," marking the completion of her honors distinction project.

The space, owned by Broadway Prescription Shop at 710 Broadway, now features a sculpture created by Southeast student Ashley Sexton, as well as two park benches, trees and shrubbery donated by the Cape Girardeau Department of Parks and Recreation and installed and planted by students in the university's horticulture program.

Placemaking, a form of urban revitalization, activates a space that wasn't being used or transforms the space, giving it a new purpose.

Placemaking also centers on adapting to the needs of people as opposed to people adapting to the limitations of the space.

Ness said her project is "bridging a gap" between the students and the community by providing a space for students to display their art publicly.

"My hope and my goal is that this space continues to grow," she said.

Stephanie Rogers, director of marketing and wellness at Broadway Prescription Shop, said the business was approached by several people wanting to use the space, but Ness' plan seemed like the perfect fit.

"Anything that would bring more visitors to our downtown, we're happy to support," Rogers said.

Steve Hoffman, professor of history and historic preservation program coordinator at Southeast, said it's a fundamental tenet of historic preservation that unless a building has a use, it's difficult to preserve it.

"The way we get buildings used is make areas around them active with pedestrians and things like that," he said. "So Lydia looked into placemaking strategies and identified this empty space as kind of being a tear in the fabric of the Broadway corridor. ... By having activity in the space, it allows the public to engage with it and make it their own."

Hoffman said one of the theories of placemaking is you can't do it on your own.

So Ness worked on the project for nearly a year and collaborated with the city of Cape Girardeau, the sculpture and horticulture departments at the university, Old Town Cape and others.

Ness said the project gave her real-world experience and also helped her get an internship in Portland, Oregon, she'll begin after graduation.

Hoffman said preservation students are encouraged to work on honors distinction projects that advance their professional development and interests.

"Lydia's project is one I'm tremendously excited about," he said. "Our goal is to have students do real work, real activities. If we can engage them in projects that make a meaningful difference, I think that's a more powerful kind of education, and I think it's something our program excels at. And I think Lydia is an individual who really excelled at that."

klamb@semissourian.com

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