One Size Placemaking Does Not Fit All
Teska’s Public Place Team has been busy and there is nothing we love more than designing streetscapes with communities in our own backyard and watching places come to life with the most important ingredient…. people!
One thing we’ve learned from our Placemaking experience is that one size does not fit all when it comes to implementing streetscapes. Two such examples are the recent downtown makeovers with the fine folks of Wilmette and Winnetka on Chicago’s North Shore.
Like other Chicagoland communities, the Villages of Winnetka and Wilmette have rallied to support their bustling unique business districts, including Village Halls, Metra stations, locally-owned shops and restaurants, mature neighborhoods, welcoming parks, and open spaces. At the same time, each community has worked tirelessly to meet the challenges of a post-COVID era, where public places are tasked to meet new demands, such as flexible parking arrangements, curbside pickups, expanded outdoor dining, pickup windows, and social distancing to name a few.
Although each streetscape included a robust public outreach program and guidance by staff and elected officials, Wilmette’s and Winnetka’s built streetscapes – and the methods by which streetscapes were built – could not be more different. While Wilmette received federal and state funding to construct their downtown streetscape, Winnetka budgeted local resources to construct their streetscape over multiple coordinated phases.
Some stats follow below:
Wilmette
Wilmette Ave: 1,350 lf
Central Ave (downtown): 975 lf
Central Ave (residential): 4,590 lf
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Total downtown streetscape: 2,325 lf
Total residential streetscape: 4,590 lf
Underground utility work, roadway, and sidewalk reconstruction refurbish existing lighting, new festoon lighting, site furnishings, gateway, and wayfinding signage, plantings, corner bump out plazas, Village Green, and Veterans Park enhancements.
$10M
Surface Transportation Program (STP): $4M
Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program (ITEP): $1M
Village Share: $5M
Phase 1 Preliminary Engineering: 2016 – 2018
Phase 2 Final Engineering: 2019 – 2020
Phase 3 Construction: 2020 – 2021
Village of Wilmette and IDOT
(IDOT permitting required per the funding source)
Teska Associates: Streetscape Design, Public Outreach
TranSystems: Engineering
Bollinger Lach: Resident Engineer
RHMG: Resident Engineer
ALamp Concrete Contractors: General Contractor
Winnetka
Phase 1 (North Chestnut Ave): 600 lf
Phase 2 (West Elm Street): 600 lf
Phase 3 (Lincoln Ave): 550 lf
Phase 4 (South Chestnut / Moffat Mall / Village Hall Parking/portions of Spruce + Elm): 1,700 lf
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Total downtown streetscape: 3,450 lf
Underground utility work, roadway and sidewalk reconstruction, new vehicular and pedestrian lighting, site furnishings, gateway and wayfinding signage, plantings, corner bump out plazas, public parking lot plantings.
$7.2M
- Phase 1 (North Chestnut Ave): $1.8M
- Phase 2 (West Elm Street): $800K
- Phase 3 (Lincoln Ave): $1.3M
- Phase 4 (South Chestnut / Moffat Mall / Village Hall Parking: $2.8M
Wayfinding signage: $500K
Phased Capital Improvements (local funds): $7.2M
Streetscape Master Plan: 2017 – 2018
Phase 1 (North Chestnut Ave): 2019 - 2020
Phase 2 (West Elm Street): 2019 - 2020
Phase 3 (Lincoln Ave): 2020 - 2021
Phase 4 (South Chestnut / Moffat Mall / Village Hall Parking): 2022
Village of Winnetka
(IDOT permitting for improvements within the state ROW only)
Teska Associates: Streetscape Design, Public Outreach
Ciorba Group: Engineering
ALamp Concrete Contractors: General Contractor
"Downtown is beautiful, magical, festive, and fun!”
- Wilmette Resident | In a Letter to Staff regarding the Downtown Streetscape
Wilmette Streetscape At Night | Droid Footage Captured by Teska