Today we visited Campustown, an area of the campus that is mostly made up of Green Street from Wright to about Fourth. It holds many restaurants and apartments for students. Some time ago it was reinvented by a group of students who took surveys and put up new measures to ensure that Campustown would be a pleasant destination for students and campus visitors alike. To the surprise of some, surveys showed that the area nearest Wright Street was considered the "nicer" portion of Campustown, with quality declining as one moved further to the west. Based off of that observation, the group of students tried to make the rest of the area feel more closed in and more on level with pedestrians. Gone were the days of Green Street being merely a way to get from the outer portion of Champaign to the campus as quickly as possible. Smaller awnings, mostly two-story buildings, creative streetlamps, and larger sidewalks made Campustown a destination for many.
As we move further west down Green Street, the area begins to feel less closed in. There are taller buildings, apartments built in hopes of attracting students after the university's announcement that they would tear down many of the dorms.
Many of the buildings around Campustown were once single family houses. When the area became a popular spot for businesses the houses were often never torn down, the business (including Firehaus) were simply built around or in front of the homes such as the one to the right.
As we near and eventually cross Fourth Street we come across a bike path that was meant to be the beginnings of a green space behind the buildings on the north side of Green Street. The businesses were to become double fronted, but the idea never took hold so the bike path became a forgotten remnant of a promising idea.
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