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Eddy Street is a staple of the Notre Dame experience today, with spots like Brothers and Dave’s Hot Chicken being popular student hangouts. However, it is important to note that just 20 years ago, the Eddy Street we know was nonexistent.

Today, students live in the Foundry apartments, study at Starbucks or shop for a new outfit at Urban Outfitters, but in 2004, the blueprint for Eddy Street was just that — a document wrapped in an architect’s tube.

In Scholastic’s Feb. 19, 2004 issue, news editor Jim Ryan discussed the university's plans for development on Eddy Street with the goal of building a sense of community between South Bend and Notre Dame.

“The university wants to create a ‘pedestrian friendly environment’ between the development's park and its commercial and residential space,” Ryan said.

The Eddy Street development south of campus was not only engineered to bring Notre Dame students off campus and into the shops and restaurants but also to make the local community feel welcome on campus.

Jackie Rucker, director of Notre Dame’s Office of Community Relations at the time said, “We want to make [Edison/Angela] more pedestrian-friendly so that people feel invited to come and hang out on campus, to spend time, to use it like a park.”

To facilitate these goals, the intersection of Edison and Angela was moved south to provide green space and a “less intimidating intersection.”

The project aimed to provide space for businesses like coffee shops, a bookstore, a physician and dentist office, a bicycle shop and an Irish pub. Many of those goals have been met.

The development was a collaborative project between the University of Notre Dame, the City of South Bend and developers, and the project led to the Eddy Street we know today.