National Main Streets Conference to Feature Tour of Downtown Ellensburg Revitalization Efforts
On March 25-28, 2007, economic development and preservation-based community revitalization practitioners will gather in Seattle from throughout the nation to share their expertise and proven strategies for building sustainable commercial districts during the national Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Streets Conference.
As part of the conference attendees will have the opportunity to travel east from Seattle, through the Cascade Mountains, to Downtown Ellensburg. On this full day tour participants have to opportunity to see how the Ellensburg Downtown Association showcases three important segments of their community and revitalization efforts: upper floor development, the arts and great architecture. Attendees will be allowed unprecedented access to some of the most amazing upper floors spaces in downtown Ellensburg. The group will see the fullest range from vacant and abandoned opportunity sites, sites being prepped for or under renovation and fully rehabilitated space. During the tour participants will also see the important role of the arts in Ellensburg’s revitalization, including traditional public art and sculpture, rehabilitation of ghost signs and murals, and the important role of arts institutions as tenants and developers. Throughout the tour attendees will also see the impressive range of unique building in and adjacent to downtown.
The tours are being hosted by the Ellensburg Downtown Association and local partners Historic Ellensburg, Gallery One and the Ellensburg Arts Commission. “We are absolutely thrilled to be able to work with our local partners to host this tour and be a part of the National Main Streets Conference” said Timothy Bishop, Executive Director for the Ellensburg Downtown Association. “This is the preeminent conference on Downtown Revitalization and we are very excited to have the conference right here in our back yard and to be able to showcase the work that we are doing here in Ellensburg is such an honor.”
The 2007 Main Streets Conference will focus on sustainability of both revitalization organizations and the communities they serve. By focusing development back to traditional town centers and commercial districts, preservation-based revitalization has always supported the tenets of land use sustainability and Smart Growth principles. Main Street programs provide a framework from which sustainability principles can be applied to the entire community’s development. In Seattle, attendees will learn how communities face and resolve the challenges of sprawl; building successful partnerships that communities develop to create sustainable growth; and answering the question: where does smart growth and community development meet? Content will also focus on how Main Street and other revitalization programs stay active and effective in their communities.
For more information about the National Main Streets Conference contact National Trust Main Street Center program associate Mary de la Fe at 202-58588-6219, email msconference@nthp.org or log onto the official conference website www.conference.mainstreet.org
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