Third Connectivity and Urban Design Meeting Held for Downtown Lakewood

The city of Lakewood held a third public workshop on April 30th on the topic of connectivity and urban design in the newly designated downtown Lakewood area. Previous meetings have mostly focused on the need for uniform signage to link together Belmar, Lakewood Commons, and the Lakewood Cultural Center. This third meeting, however, really broke the mold with some exciting proposals.

How exciting? Think urban gondolas, bicycle sharing, and a monumental downtown gateway. Here's a quick breakdown:

1.) Uniform Design-- the proposal calls for enhanced streetscaping and signage in the downtown Lakewood area. Streetscaping would involve consistent use of street trees, colored concrete, pedestrian lighting, and consistent median treatments. Signage would be contemporary, with aluminum and stainless steel finishes and red sandstone bases. The idea would be to create a downtown Lakewood "brand" in the design elements.

2.) Improved Transit Connections-- the exciting part here is the discussion of how to connect downtown Lakewood to the new Wadsworth light rail station. Proposals included bus rapid transit (boring), streetcars (yes, please!) and even urban gondolas (wow!) running along Wadsworth. Equally exciting is the idea of a downtown Lakewood bicycle sharing system like Denver's B-Cycle. Finally, there continues to be talk of how to link Belmar and Lakewood Commons, with the current proposal being a below grade crossing of Wadsworth at Alaska Dr. and an enhanced crosswalk at Wadsworth and Virginia Ave. ("enhanced" meaning mostly brighter paint).

3.) Wayfinding Elements-- this includes directional signage pointing to public facilities (library, cultural center, RTD transit hubs, etc.) as well as a series of "monumental" gateways identifying downtown Lakewood for approaching drivers.

4.) Improvements to the Belmar and Lakewood Commons RTD transit centers.

5.) Development of surface parking along Alaska Dr. in Lakewood Commons to create a pedestrian mall effect.

A few screenshots of the city's presentation are below: