URBAN PRECEDENCE

1. Initial ideas started to emerge as conceptual design stage kicked off. One of the main ideas was to pedestrianize the Avenue. This was done to solve the heavy traffic flow issue and vehicular accident rate the Avenue faces presently. One of the major precedence I studied was the city of Amsterdam. The popular shopping district known as Kalverstraat is pedestrian friendly shopping district. This gives shoppers and tourist a better way to experience the area.

Another precedence was Strøget, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is one of the world’s longest pedestrian street and the area a major tourist attraction. One thing I learned from this street was the way the street was designed to be people interactive and engaging. With a lot of street entertainment, in addition to shopping variety the street offers draws people from far and wide mainly for the experience. Copenhagen also embraces cycling as another means of transportation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and make the streets particularly their shopping districts. This is what we wanted to achieve in Chelten Avenue. Many of the historical buildings are located along Germantown Avenue and the interesting hang out spots are unfortunately located in Chestnut hill and Mount Airy the neighbouring districts located west of Germantown.

Kalverstraat, Amsterdam

Strøget, Copenhagen