Living Streets
How can our most prevalent public spaces be re-imagined to better serve our communities and environment in increasingly dense urban neighborhoods?
A NEW MODEL
A “living street” performing multiple social, cultural and environmental functions—a hypothetical street for a burgeoning Seattle neighborhood, with prototypical concepts that can be applied to countless streets in Seattle and beyond.
LIVING STREETS PRINCIPLES
Re-framed perspective: Not a street, but a public place that welcomes passage of cars and transit.
The most sustainable achievement is increasing livability and walkability in dense urban neighborhoods.
Low Impact Development (LID) is an underlying strategy, seen and unseen.
Fosters commerce, human interaction and activity.
Maintains and enhances the city’s vital utility and transportation functions.
Grows and evolves in ways planned and unplanned.
OUR APPROACH
Honor the existing urban fabric: The transition to a living street responds to multiple conditions, influences and adjacent uses while also shaping future opportunities for development and evolution.
Design program, treatments & elements: Provide a variety of experiences appropriate to their settings, yet assure that the street forms a cohesive, enriching whole.
Integrate sustainability and Low Impact Development (LID): A living street must mitigate its own impact and mitigate beyond its limits. Our living street detains and treats all stormwater it generates, as well as receiving off-site flows, and meets Seattle’s “Green Factor”.
OUR VISION
A vibrant public space teeming with life, activity, play, and escape, redefining expectations of civic infrastructure.
