Tuesday, August 17, 1999

Untitled Document

Wescott plans are appreciable

for form, function

From Staff Reports

Austin Daily Herald

Often in Austin, new buildings and improvements to buildings are greeted with a grunt of dismay as some new eye-blinding ugliness arises on Main Street or the skyline.

The improvements to Wescott Field stand in sharp contrast to that, with red and white Packer colors planned in, two Packer Plazas, and other changes, small and large, which add up to a nicer place to take part in athletics, or witness them.

The architect of this plan is a former Austinite himself. David Kane, of Rochester’s Kane and Johnson Architects, Inc., grew up just down the way from Wescott field. It’s been clear from his presentations that while packing the maximum athletics into the facility is a high priority, so is the beauty of the site.

Hurray, then, for the architect, and hurray for the school board which seems ready to back this vision come Thursday’s vote.

Perhaps more businesspeople and community leaders in this city will look to this example as they consider improvements and preservations to be made. Keeping Austin beautiful – or making it more so – does as much to bring people in to stay as bringing in a business.