Outdoor Living Rooms and Sustainable Landscapes Breathe New Life into the Elm Street District
Winnetka, IL
Project Highlights
Support for existing active gathering areas as outdoor living rooms
Clear and open sidewalks
Balanced impacts to on-street parking
Street trees installed with structural soils
Clustered bench seating at key intersections and bike bollards
Curbed planter bumpouts for trees and groundcover plantings
The Winnetka Downtown Plan resulted in a community-wide call for placemaking, leading the development and adoption of the Downtown Streetscape Plan. Teska has continued to partner with the Village to implement multiple recommendations, including improvements to downtown streets and intersections. Following robust public outreach, Teska was also responsible for concept level through construction documentation and construction oversight. Winnetka has completed 4 and is currently designing the 5th and final phase of the Elm Street business district Streetscape Enhancements.
“A lot of the newer families that are moving into this community see what we’re doing and it becomes another value add — to add a fresh, clean, well-designed, thoughtful downtown really has been a very positive thing.”
- Chris Rintz, Winnetka Village President | Excerpt, The Record North Shore Article // January 21th, 2021
