pedestrian plaza AT ELLIS PRESERVE
CLIENT: EQUUS Capital Partners
TYPE: Streetscape Design
LOCATION: Newtown Square, PA
STATUS: Complete 2019
The Stuart team was engaged to create a safer, complete street that gave the roadway back to the pedestrian. The first portion of the pedestrian plaza was installed outside Main Line Health in Fall of 2019 and is being used daily. Some of the major design changes include decreasing the width of the roadway by eight feet, creating sidewalks for parallel travel, and elevating the roadway to create a pedestrian plaza. By giving pedestrians the priority, vehicles have slowed, both pedestrian and vehicular circulation has improved, and has created a grand entrance to the streetscape.
The plaza is announced by a blend of gray linear pavers that attract pedestrians to walk freely. The plaza is flanked with two speed ramps that allow vehicles to be signaled they are entering a pedestrian zone. Highlighting the space, are an allee of london plane trees that play homage to the Ellis Preserve Campus and provide a dense canopy for the parallel concrete sidewalk. The entire streetscape is softened with a native planting palette including deschampsia and pennisetum varieties.