Overhauling A Beloved Public Space

"With its role in the city's day-to-day rhythms diminished by reduced routine usage, especially at night, Fountain Square today is just as likely to be called a 'desolate concrete desert' and a 'tattered masterpiece' -- the latter by a consultant charged with obliterating the unflattering adjective from that description to ensure that the square's future is as bright as its past.Among city leaders who look to Fountain Square to spur a renaissance in a troubled downtown, there is a growing consensus that the square must change -- aesthetically and culturally -- if it and the city that it symbolizes are to not just survive, but thrive."