Festival Street Attracts Business and Awards to Downtown Hermiston

Recently, the Oregon Economic Development Association awarded the City of Hermiston its Urban Renewal Project of the year. “These projects have changed the face of downtown Hermiston for the better,” the East Oregonian quoted Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann saying, “combining public planning and private investment to create a more attractive and cohesive core.”

We're excited because the festival street we designed with The City of Hermiston and Anderson Perry & Associates, Inc. was part of the development downtown that earned Hermiston the award. The Hermiston Festival Street, along NE 2nd Street, serves economic development goals, provides a sense of arrival and place in Downtown Hermiston, allows flexibility for programmed events throughout the year, and opens to traffic when not in use.

We asked Hermiston City Planner Clinton Spencer about the festival street, its inception and the impact it’s made since it was completed.

GW: What was the big idea behind the festival street and the larger downtown renewal project? Why did the City of Hermiston feel the need to do it?

CS: The festival street is a concept which originated from a working group of city officials, downtown merchants, and planning consultants. At the time, there was a high vacancy rate on our Main Street and the entire downtown was seeing a general lack of interest. Hermiston’s downtown has a solid skeleton.  There is adequate off-street parking, lots of retail and office space available, and a quirky character just waiting for the right investments. The working group envisioned the creation of a new public gathering space. We really wanted to create an area that would get people out of their cars and onto their feet so they would take the time to stroll through the downtown and get a better idea of the services and products on offer. It’s hard to get people to voluntarily slow down and really investigate the area, so we considered the festival street as a way to hold regular public events in downtown. These events would be the draw, but while people visited the events, they would also investigate the rest of downtown. Hermiston has a dry, sunny climate, so scheduling regular outdoor events isn’t as difficult as it might be in a rainy climate. 

A streetscape design was identified as the best way to attract visitors based primarily on economics. Hermiston’s city hall and a municipal parking lot are both located on the festival street. Using an existing street meant there would be no real estate acquisition costs. Choosing a street perpendicular to Main Street and adjacent to existing municipal facilities meant the street could be closed for events with no disruption to Main Street businesses. Construction likewise had little impact on businesses because our Main Street had minimal closure.

As far as the central concept of the festival street, we really wanted to create a dual use facility. We wanted a street open for traffic and parking 90% of the year, but which can be turned into an outdoor gathering space in a short time for events and then reopened to traffic as soon as possible. 

GW: What was the city looking for in the design for the festival street in particular?

CS: In terms of design, there were several things essential to the project.  As noted, Hermiston is a dry, sunny climate. This means shade is essential for a successful outdoor space. We wanted to use street trees that would mature quickly and provide that shade as soon as the street began to hit its stride in programming.

Since the street is intended to be designed from a user perspective as a cohesive space, we wanted to design a street with no curbs or tripping hazards. That would allow us to set up vendor tents and not need to worry about people falling when leaving the traditional pedestrian space and entering the main part of the street.  The end result is that what used to be the street was raised about six inches in elevation to match the previous sidewalk elevation.

We really wanted to make sure that we built an amenity that could handle a variety of events. This means we have electrical outlets spaced along the entire length of the street so vendors can get power without running generators or running long extension cords. We also built in 220v power connections at multiple locations to handle PA systems and large light displays. There are also new water connections for food vendors and other times when water is needed.

GW: What programmed events happen on the festival street yearly?

CS: We try to program events all during the spring, summer, and fall. Our goal is to have at least one event per month for the seven months the weather is most cooperative. We have a watermelon festival, an art festival, a harvest festival, and other festivals. We also have a festival of lights that runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. One of the elements in the street is a tree well we use to house the city’s Christmas tree each year. 

The festival street functions as a city park and is reservable like any of our other outdoor event spaces.  Downtown merchants have reserved it several times and used the space for outdoor concerts, wine tasting, and other events.

GW: How have local business owners responded? Has it attracted visitors?

CS: The downtown business owners have been very positive about the project.  This is mainly because the project spent almost a decade as a proposed downtown project. We often publicized that it was a project we wanted to do, so it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when construction started. Our design group was a majority of downtown stakeholders. There is a real sense of ownership of the project. 

We are really seeing an increase in interest in our downtown and festivals are well attended.  Most of the comments are questions about when it will expand to other blocks and create even more space.

We have had two restaurant businesses choose to locate on the festival street just since it opened. These businesses chose to locate in the downtown specifically to take advantage of the type of environment the festival street offers. We are also continually surprised by how the street is used outside of a festival time. The seat walls in particular are very popular. We have seen people use them to eat lunch, check their phones, etc. The other use that surprises us is the photo opportunities it provides. It’s not unusual to see students posing on the street for their senior pictures. It’s amazing how a relatively small investment has really generated a lot of positive feedback and accomplished the goals we had for the project.