A similar re-routing of Church Street was done a few years ago....and now there is a terrific pocket park behind the Episcopal Cathedral....and the curvge made for a more interesting site plan for the Parks @ Cathedral townhomes.
Also, for those who worry that this is not "urban" enough....take a look at the recent posts from Lakelander about Toronto's courthouse.....that complex takes up several blocks and is set back quite a bit....what they did to make it work was create a public plaza space in front of the courthouse....the same could be done here over time!
Here's a few more images of that Toronto City Hall plaza area. Its a pretty simple design that was built on the top of a two block underground parking garage. It basically includes public restroom facilities, a concrete plaza, a little green space and a huge water fountain. The plaza is used for special events and for food vendors during the day. The fountain becomes a public outdoor ice skating rink in the winter. The buildings surrounding it are pretty urban and feature a mix of uses.

the green spaces feature a few trees and monuments, such as this statue of Winston Churchill.

From the air, city hall is designed to resemble God's hands holding Earth.

The concrete plaza is used for vendor space.

the fountain, looking back at the original city hall building across the street. The two towers in the background are constructed on top of a large mall that sits on the same block as the old city hall.
Sidewalks and buildings surrounding city hall's plaza
If you like cheap food served quick, the sidewalks surrounding the plaza is a zoo during lunch time on the weekdays.

Streetcar lines run on two sides of the courthouse property. The streetcars appear to be a lot more popular then the city buses, which for the most part were empty.

the old city hall comes right up against the sidewalks.

there's also a college across the street. The school worked with a developer who added big box retail stores at street level.
We'll plant y'all some squash and collards on those empty lots. Don't worry. Maybe some mulberries too.

This is actually a few blocks away, but I figured I'd post it for jmccharen. A few more community gardens in the urban core would not hurt either.
If the land surrounding the courthouse site turns out like this, I won't complain.