Expanding the Use of Public Space

Streets, roadways, and other public rights-of-way typically occupy 30 percent or more of the land area in our communities and often have been designed for primarily moving motor vehicle traffic, not moving people. Our streetscapes are designed for people and for all modes of transportation.

We engage communities in the design process to reflect and honor their social interests, economic goals, and cultural heritage. We are proud to be on the forefront of designing shared streets and spaces, including festival streets—open to traffic and parking most of the time and closed periodically for special events, markets, and community festivities. Shared streets offer the benefits of expanding the use of public space, prioritizing pedestrians, calming traffic, improving safety, and boosting social and economic activity. Our designers use creativity to integrate low impact development and green infrastructure, street trees and landscaping that thrive in urban conditions, human scale lighting, and a full complement of furnishings, public art, and interpretive elements that reflect community values and character.

“The problem that many towns suffer is that, in trying to accommodate traffic, they have allowed streets to become so heavily dominated by vehicles, that those streets have lost their primary purpose, which is as places that attract people, that attract investment, that attract spending.” – Ben Hamilton-Baillie