Ah, I was pleased to read in the Salem Statesman Journal today that another person dislikes Pringle Square for the same reasons I do.
This monstrosity of a development proposed to be built on the riverfront is ugly and uncreative. It won't draw people downtown. It won't make central Salem a more interesting and livable place.
Rebecca Custard is absolutely right: "Downtown Salem doesn't need another eyesore."
I very much agree with Carole Duree-Jones (letters, Jan. 13) regarding the plans for the new Pringle Square.
To those who are tasked with making and approving the design and usage decisions for this project, I would implore you to consider something that welcomes and invites visits to Salem and the riverfront area as a destination place rather than adding one more monolithic eyesore to the community.
This is, for Oregon's capital, the perfect opportunity to create an inviting and gorgeous riverfront community of shops, recreation and residential location — to entice visitors and enliven the area, instead of contributing to a continuation of the current "uglification" of the downtown area.
New construction in Salem for the past 10 years has done little to enhance the beauty and grace of this city; i.e., the Conference Center that, to my untrained eye, appears to be a bizarre merging of the architectural styles of Frank Lloyd Wright meets the Jetsons and Walmart.
The Pringle Square property has all the potential to be such an inviting treasure of a location; something of a jewel for the city of Salem and the riverfront.
What Salem really doesn't need is one more uninspiring and vacant apartment/condo building spoiling the view.
— Rebecca Custard, Dallas
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