nothin How’s This For A Wooster Square Welcome? | New Haven Independent

How’s This For A
Wooster Square Welcome?

Allan Appel Photo

Andy Ross wants to put an arch over the Chapel Street bridge to welcome you to Wooster Square. And he’s putting his money where his dreams are.

When Ross (pictured) became head of the Downtown Wooster Square Management Team (DWSMT) in November, he wanted to use the new post in part to re-vamp the transition area between the neighborhood and downtown. The corner of Chapel and Olive streets had been dull and drab for all the 10 years he’s lived in the neighborhood, Ross said.

Ross envisions a bold archway over Chapel Street, welcoming people to the Wooster Square neighborhood. He plans to achieve that vision by sprucing the area up in other ways first, as a way of priming the pump for fundraising for arch construction. He’s putting up his own cash to kick things off by remaking the drab exterior of the Firestone building near the corner, and plans to work on the similarly bleak Comcast building next.

Lets’ do something especially about the blacked out windows on Comcast” and the greyed-out windows of the Firestone building on the block between Olive and Union, he said.

The management team was behind the notion, but didn’t have the bucks. Ross didn’t want to wait. So he fronted $2,500 of his own, money to be returned when the team gets into fundraising mode.

The three Firestone building panels prepped for receiving images.

Ross’ $2,500 will help pay local artist Gregory Smart to install two historical images — along with a yet-to-be-finalized image of a Wooster Square house — on the Firestone building panels. (Smart’s mock-up is pictured below.)

George Gregory Smart Photo Illustration

They will be installed within weeks. Ross said that seeing those images just might kick-start action” with Comcast. While Firestone has obviously given permission, he and Smart hope to pay a visit to Comcast headquarters to present them with a visual plan for the building.

The Comcast facade.

Images of the farmers’ market, the cherry blossom festival, and perhaps signage from the iconic pizza restaurants on Wooster Street are being considered. Ross and Smart are open to suggestions from Independent readers for other suggestions, should Comcast give permission.

Ross estimated the cost for the Comcast building images to run to approximately $6,000. He said individual sponsorships for each of the panels or windows is part of the planning.

Eventually, if Ross can find the means, he said his grand program for physical improvement will culminate in an arch over Chapel at Union, just west of Olive, near where the neighborhood is planning a pooch park.

This is such a major gateway. My dream would be to have an arch on both sides. Welcome to Downtown’ [visible going west] and Welcome to Wooster Square’ [going east]. Make it inviting,” he said

His models for the arch include the brick and wrought iron arch over Wooster Street at DePalma Court welcoming tourists to New Haven’s Little Italy; and also the gateway bridge at Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island.

Wooster Street arch.

You can’t fault Ross for not thinking grandly. If I had all the money in the world I’d [also] brick and cobblestone the sidewalk,” he said.

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