In Savannah, the city’s architectural and urban beauty is able to display the strong, beautiful, and creative contributions to the city’s pattern. It’s urban design is geared towards promoting walking to be the main mode of getting around the city. People come from all over to enjoy walking our great city. These are the key ingredients that make Savannah a spectacular city, and a visitor’s hotspot.
River Street, Savannah, Georgia.
Places such as River Street are a popular tourist attraction in it’s own right, and make the list for being one of the top five landmarks that tourists identify with Savannah. It is an urban renewal project that displays the two-hundred year old cobble-stones arranged along the length of the river, and lined with over seventy shops, restaurants and businesses. The buildings on River Street are of a heterogenous architectural fabric in style, scale, materials and details, while keeping the character of Savannah.
River Street is currently set up for one way traffic heading to the east. During a typical weekend or even peak season weekday, the sidewalks are very crowded with people mixing into the travel lane to pass slow moving pedestrian groups. The River front park is a great active space but it is cut off from the south side of River street by an overly wide vehicular travel lane.
River Street, Savannah, Georgia.
Boulevards such as Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain, display the high volumes of pedestrian traffic that generate a powerful retail economy and friendly, comfortable environment. It is a large strip populated with retail shops, restaurants and businesses surrounded by small, tight streets that provide calm traffic allowing for an increase in pedestrian activity and economic vitality. It is a top tourist attraction and is one of the features that makes Barcelona a great city.
Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain.
What if this was applied to River Street? This could make one of Savannah’s main destinations one of it’s most beautiful public spaces. The travel lane could be closed to normal traffic while leaving the ability to bring in emergency vehicles. The remains space can be made pedestrian and bike friendly and also allow the businesses to use the new public space.
By making River Street primarily pedestrianized, businesses such as Olympia Cafe could expand their Forty-table seating, to an additional twenty tables for outdoor seating. This allows for their business to have a sales increase by at least 50%, and an increase in local taxes. It allows River Street to be slightly reinvented as an excellent urban room and a grande promenade. The cost to the city would be near zero to get started.
Olympia Cafe on River Street, Savannah, Georgia.
Savannah is an urbanism success story that is constantly in the making. This is a case for beautiful design with economics that work for everyone.
originally posted 11.11.16
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