Understanding the Community’s Vision

Our downtowns and main streets have often been left behind when they should always be the heart of our communities. Remnants of our past, superseded by new suburban developments and shopping centers, we unfortunately often see town center settings become less active and lose their vibrancy over time. Yet these are the perfect settings to bring our community together—places where everyone can access what they need and join in celebrations, parades, and special events.

Otak takes the mission of downtown revitalization seriously, and we understand that success is dependent upon more than an exercise of making improvements. Creating thriving downtowns with active urban parks and public spaces, streetscapes, transit centers, and public facilities requires a mix of residential, retail, and civic uses with people interacting on a continual basis. We start with understanding and defining the community’s vision for their downtown and build a proactive plan for how to get there.

Our downtown and main street projects include plan-making, visioning, and policy development for downtown districts, as well as planning and design of plazas and pedestrian spaces, urban street networks including festival streets, green streets, and low impact development features, street trees and landscaping that thrive in urban conditions, human scale lighting, and a full complement of furnishings, public art, and interpretive elements that honor and paint the picture of a community’s heritage.