40 West ArtLine Urban Design and Mobility Enhancements
Date: 1/1/2021 - 5/31/2021
40 West ArtLine Urban Design and Mobility Enhancements
Student Researchers: Sarah Grossi and Nikisha Mistry
Client: City of Lakewood
View Capstone Poster
View Executive Summary
In 2014, the 40 West Arts Creative District in the City of Lakewood was designated a Certified Creative District by the Colorado Office of Economic and International Trade. In 2018, with grant support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the 40 West ArtLine was launched as a strategy to connect residents to transit, parks, and the art district, while improving pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. A bright green line is painted on the ground along the route as a wayfinding strategy informing residents when they are on the ArtLine and connects residents and visitors to various local amenities.
To implement the vision of creating Colorado’s longest public arts pedestrian experience, the city needed more information in the form of qualitative data and community feedback to inform improvements for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure along the ArtLine and connectivity to public transit, schools, parks, local cultural and economic hubs, and other community amenities. This Capstone project, 40 West ArtLine Urban Design and Mobility Enhancements, accomplishes several goals. The project team worked to locate the missing links along the 40 West Artline and determine the best strategies for improving accessibility, activity, and community interaction, and created a GIS database of all collected infrastructure and amenity data for the City of Lakewood. The project team also developed a community survey to better understand how residents and users are currently interacting with the trail, what they enjoy, and where they have identified areas of opportunity. Finally, this project worked to analyze data and provide recommendations for improving sidewalk and crosswalk infrastructure, incorporating low-cost tactical urbanism in the form of additional art and placemaking, and better connecting users to public transit, open space destinations, and other major community attractions.