Oak Harbor Harborside Merchants Association and Development Services Department, Oak Harbor, Washington
We
worked with the Harborside Merchants Association, City Council's Windjammer
Project Committee, and Development Services Department on
the design of streetscape improvements to Pioneer Way through the city's historic business district. The
project involved participatory planning and design workshops with a task force
composed of downtown property owners and merchants.
The historic downtown district has
begun to revitalize with the development of major residential and mixed use
developments at the edge of the district, and the Windjammer Project to
redevelop the city's waterfront park. The City Council's Windjammer Committee
tasked us to develop a preliminary design and engineering
program for parking, plaza, sidewalk, and streetscape design
improvements.
Our
concept reconfigured the street to provide alternating diagonal parking with
flat curbs, raised intersections with accent paving, and a series of plazas and
overlooks the length of the district to create design accents and provide space
for the district's Holland Happening, market, and other festival events. Working
with the merchant and property owner committee, we developed a common vocabulary of street trees, lighting
standards, entry signage, and street furnishings to unify Pioneer Way
streetscape improvements with the waterfront. Sidewalk
and street crosswalk paving materials, street furnishings, and the spacing of
lighting standards, increased in intensity to provide the most accents at a
proposed hillclimb between the downtown and the waterfront Windjammer Park and
future pier.
We
developed detailed cost estimates with which to share utility and roadway
reconstruction work requirements with a property owner funded LID for
streetscape enhancements.