Downtown street scape improvements in Loves Park

The City of Loves Park, Illinois, wants to create a more appealing corridor on North Second Street, a major state highway. The City hired Fehr Graham to create concept designs to unify the streetscape, increase pedestrian access and set it up for redevelopment.

The City selected the corner of North Second Street and River Lane to start work on this project because the City owns the land on three of the four corners of the intersection. Our landscape architects designed the three parcels with similar features so they would complement each other and encourage the redevelopment of the fourth corner. The new design will run from Lake Street to Merrill Avenue. Our team brought the three disjointed parcels together with landscape designs.

Because North Second Street is a four-lane state highway with parking lanes in some sections, traffic moves quickly. We designed bump outs to slow traffic and appeal to pedestrians by making the crossing distance shorter. These also visibly identify the stretch as a downtown area by enabling and encouraging foot traffic.

The City is looking to partner with the Rockford Area Convention & Visitor's Bureau to bring outdoor art to the area, too. The project will help make the corridor safer and more attractive.

AT A GLANCE
» Prepared concepts and renderings.
» Coordinated with local and state officials.
» Held open houses and public input meetings.
» Met with City Council.