Second look: Students seek new vision for Fremont St.

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

It's not every day that eastern Fremont Street -- notorious for drug dealing and prostitution -- wakes up to a crowd of Ivy League graduate students tromping through the area and snapping photographs of the '50s- and '60s-style architecture.

To city officials, the cheap motels and gifts shops are an eyesore and a conduit for crime, but to graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia the street has the potential to be transformed into a vibrant community built on its history.

More than 20 students and faculty members from the university's School of Fine Arts are in Las Vegas this week, having chosen eastern Fremont Street for their studio project this semester. The students are majoring in historic preservation, city planning, fine arts and architecture.

Over the next several months students will form a vision for Fremont. Ultimately, the students will present their plans to city leaders, who have tried with little success to improve the area.

Penn students, however, have had success in advising officials on how to revive other dying cities, such as Wildwood, N.J., said Susan Snyder, a professor for the architecture program at Penn.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said it is critical for the area to be revived. Neonopolis, a 240,000-square foot, $99 million entertainment complex on the other side of Fremont Street, is set to open in May.

"I'm hoping they can bring in some fresh ideas," he said.

The university is partnering with students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Snyder in the past had worked with Jose Gamez, an assistant professor of architecture at UNLV whose students have also conducted similar studies in Pennsylvania.

Rick Nogues, a community policing officer for Metro Police, said one of the biggest problems on Fremont is not having enough police officers to patrol the area.

"I don't think we're going to fix up Fremont Street with police presence. What's going to change it is changing the atmosphere of Fremont Street, taking away the reason why criminals come down here," he said.

Brad Roeder, a student whose studies include an emphasis on historic preservation, said the city should preserve what it has but find new uses for dilapidated hotels. He could see the area becoming filled with coffee shops, nightclubs and other attractions, which would lure local residents.

"The preservation part of it I really like a lot," he said. "At the same time, it reminds me of a lot of other cities where there was once an industry that is no longer there. I just see a lot of potential."

Gamez said his students will propose a vision for the street, then target specific buildings and landmarks for improvement.

"Academics can raise questions and shine the spotlight on areas that get overlooked," he said.

Snyder said Las Vegas is similar to the students' study of Atlantic City, which they researched for the same purpose.

But Atlantic City over the years has not been as successful and was not receptive to the students' ideas. Instead of taking their advice to find new uses for the hotels and reinvent the boardwalk, the officials tore down many hotels and, instead, proposed small shops along the waterfront, Snyder said.

"Casinos sucked all the life out of Atlantic City," Snyder said.

But in Wildwood, N.J., the students' work resulted in the state funding $40 million in bonds to revive the area, including cleaning up the beach and creating a new boardwalk.

The city's Business Development offices hopes to build on what the students accomplish over the next several months.

"It's always great to have fresh eyes come in," said Steven van Gorp of the city's Business Development office. "If all that area were cleaned up it would be an amazing asset to the community."