U. of Illinois students show conceptual plaza for Rose Bowl parking lot to Urbana council

University of Illinois architecture faculty and students presented a conceptual plaza design to the Urbana City Council committee of the whole, proposing a permanent public plaza on the city-owned parking lot immediately north of the Rose Bowl Tavern.

Professor Joseph Altschuler, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, introduced the project and emphasized the work is speculative: “I wanna make clear … this is not a commission. This is not intended to be built as shown.” Graduate student Jake Rhodes said the studio found “there’s actually no shortage of programming. What there is is a shortage of venues,” and framed the design as a way to create more flexible downtown spaces.

The students developed the schematic as a class project during spring 2025, informed by the city’s 2022 Urbana downtown public realm study and consultations with Rose Bowl representative Charlie Harris and Urbana’s public realm team. Their…