State Street Mall Great Placemaking Idea #4: Tasteful Use of Artistic Bike Racks to Help Brand the Space

State Street Mall and Library Mall continue to be a major bicycle thoroughfare as well as a pedestrian mall. During a 2013 traffic count, the design team clocked 1000 bicyclists entering the project area in one day. Of those 1000, more than 900 disregarded the posted prohibition of riding on the mall. This number suggests […]

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State Street Mall Great Placemaking Idea #3: Redesign the Fountain as an Interactive Water Feature

For great Placemaking idea #3 we’ll take a walk.  To walk through the Library and State Street Malls is to experience history. As the primary nexus of activity on the east end of campus and the gateway between the university and Madison’s downtown, this area is rife with historical significance. Renovations and updates to such […]

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State Street Mall Great Placemaking Idea #2: Flexible shade and seating

Currently, the Library Mall lacks suitable shade structures or comfortable seating (see image below, top), even when it is not under construction. The 700 and 800 blocks of State Street currently offer seating, but it is fixed, made of concrete, and awkwardly arranged in the middle of a pedestrian through-way around a 70s-era speaker podium […]

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Idea 1 of 8 Great Placemaking Ideas For The State Street Mall Renovation

One of the most important aspects of proper placemaking, according to the Project for Public Spaces, is this: “The Community is the Expert.” When the State Street Mall design team asked the public for their suggestions and ideas of how to improve one of Madison’s iconic public spaces, a frequently recurring comment was that Library […]

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Walkability in Madison, from eye level

What is Walk Appeal? One of the most crucial components of any healthy community is how walkable it is. Walkable communities are fitter, safer, and more socially cohesive, to say nothing of the benefits to businesses when customers can easily come on foot and by bicycle. Often, we measure the walkability of a block, a […]

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Infill redevelopment in Downtown Madison

Check out this very cool rendering by Matt Covert of all the infill redevelopment in Downtown Madison that is under construction or that has been approved by city planning (with the exception of Judge Doyle Square, which has had multiple proposals but no action by the city). At the end of 2012, 14 major infill […]

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