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WATERVILLE — Waterville Creates! has announced a new exhibition — Reimagining Castonguay Square — featuring the past, present and future of one of Waterville’s oldest public gathering spaces, opening at Common Street Arts Monday, Jan. 14.
Castonguay Square is one of Waterville’s oldest public gathering spaces. Gifted to the city by land deed in 1840, “the commons” was renamed Castonguay Square in 1921 for Arthur L. Castonguay, the first soldier from Waterville to be killed in action in World War I.
uring this time of significant new investment and transformative change in downtown Waterville, Waterville Creates! is leading a public redesign process for Castonguay Square. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the City of Waterville and Colby College, the design project involves diverse voices and perspectives in reimagining this important civic space and its role in our community.
This exhibition integrates three-dimensional design concepts created by teams of citizens during a public design charrette held in November 2018. Historic images of Castonguay Square from the Waterville Historical Society will also be included in this exhibition, which is free and open to the public.
The design team from Beyer Blinder Belle and Mitchell & Associates will present three design options for Castonguay Square from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, in the Chace Community Forum at the Bill and Joan Alfond Main Street Commons. The designs will be based on input provided by community members at the first two charrettes and earlier stakeholder meetings. The goal of this presentation will be to prioritize concepts and design elements within the three options to be combined in a single conceptual design direction. Refreshments will be available beginning at 5 pm.
“One of the primary goals of Waterville Creates! is to provide a diverse array of accessible and relevant programming for our community and the Reimagining Castonguay Square exhibition fits squarely with this mission,” says Patricia King, vice president at Waterville Creates! “This exhibition speaks to the thoughtful collaboration that is taking place within our community during this wonderful moment in Waterville’s history. It’s lovely to see such active participation when thinking about public spaces that we all share.”
PHOTO: Opera House sign at commons, circa 1900s (Waterville Historical Society photo)
