ESTABLISH A TRANSFORMATIVE FRAMEWORK

Design Goals:

Build on existing resources to create an armature connecting communities and institutions, enhance existing public and private development, and organize future development within the greenway corridor.

Community Goals:

Provide many points of access and opportunities for meaningful north/south connections that are high quality and done with extensive engagement. These are equally important to the main east-west greenway. All facilities should encourage further exploration of both the greenway and the communities it connects.

CATALYZE COMMUNITY BUILDING

Design Goals:

Utilize the greenway as common ground to enrich lives, strengthen relationships and bridge communities. Encourage individual communities to embrace the greenway as integral infrastructure and incorporate elements in or near the greenway that celebrate the individual character of each community and neighborhood.

Community Goals:

Design the greenway to be meaningful to St. Louisans. Listen to a variety of perspectives and needs across many demographics and design projects to be representative and reflective of neighborhoods.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE REGIONAL SYSTEM

Design Goals:

The Chouteau Greenway plays a role as a primary connector of two major city treasures, Forest Park and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. As the regional greenway system continues to evolve within the vision portrayed in the Great Rivers Greenway Plan, each greenway segment needs to both support the overall plan and contribute to a regional greenway experience.

Community Goals:

Adding this missing link in the center of the city will provide critical connections in the project area, as well as invite people into the regional system to explore. Design projects to become a common ground where all feel welcome; this is an opportunity to be a launch point for people to connect with each other across previously insurmountable socioeconomic, transportation and perceived barriers to venture further from their routine routes, discover the region and connect with each other.

CHOREOGRAPH URBAN LIFE

Design Goals:

Create opportunities for uses along the greenway corridor to interact with the pathway through providing a “front porch” or “civic room” that might add to the activity along the corridor. Within the greenway framework, provide for design interventions from neighboring institutions and communities that create integrated and sequential experiences. Define the corridor as a sequence of spaces and activities, not just a pathway. Determine how existing and future communities, buildings, and spaces will interact with the greenway.

Community Goals:

Innovate by adding value to existing amenities, infrastructure, institutions, service providers and with new elements that make sense in context, building upon what exists.

CREATE DIVERSE AND ACCESSIBLE EXPERIENCES

Design Goals:

Provide an urban experience with ranges of intense and passive activity. Honor principles of universal design as determinants of form. Explore day/night and seasonal variations to ensure the greenway is a year-round, all day experience for all. Provide pathways and spaces that encourage diverse programming opportunities that celebrate the unique history and culture of St. Louis and welcome all possible visitors through intentional inclusionary practices.

Community Goals:

Consider access and comfort in all seasons, especially availability of shade, seating and water. Think about design for activities beyond walking, running and biking, such as skateboarding, food trucks, public discourse, outdoor classrooms and education, public and private events and programs.

PROVIDE A SAFE AND SECURE ENVIRONMENT

Design Goals:

Through “defensible space” and “eyes on the street” principles, engender a sense that users of the greenway enjoy a safe environment. Provide the vehicle for a coordinated and collaborative security system that ties together programs and institutions.

Community Goals:

Create a greenway and connections that include lighting, emergency phones for immediate connections with security or emergency personnel, published and enforced rules and no hiding spots. Consider ambassador or ranger programs (and necessary facilities for them) that populate the greenway 24 hours per day. Remember all ages and abilities for safety considerations.

GENERATE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Design Goals:

Utilize the greenway to support and create economic vitality while maintaining economic stability. Explore how the greenway can contribute to job growth and equitable economic opportunities for all. Make the greenway a canvas for future generations to circulate, play, work, and learn.

Community Goals:

Take into account design elements that encourage and support small businesses, vendors, musicians, artists. Make it easy to use the greenway to extend business opportunities or create new ones.

INTEGRATE ART AND CULTURE

Design Goals:

Incorporate art that provides an interpretive layer of individual and collective expression. Consider the interactive relationship of the art to the various age groups and diverse cultures that activate the greenway. Connect to, and celebrate, existing cultural institutions within and adjacent to the corridor.

Community Goals:

Showcase the past, present and future of this region and reflect the spirit and ideals of many different residents. Provide experiences to help visitors visualize and explore key regional themes such as music, industry, race relations, green space and architecture. Art and programs should be locally-focused but internationally relevant, in conjunction with and inclusive of the community – diversity of artists and mediums.

IMPROVE MOBILITY AND CONNECTIVITY

Design Goals:

Recognize the role mobility plays as a physical and functional determinant of the greenway—providing opportunities for multiple modes and reducing conflicts between modes. Provide junctures where future connectivity to the regional system is facilitated, especially to ensure equity in transportation options.

Community Goals:

Create compelling places that will encourage use and that are clearly delineated for walking, bicycling and driving. Direct, seamless connections to transit and parking resources for all ages and abilities are very important, as are bridges and underpasses over/under major streets.

SHAPE A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Design Goals:

Incorporate technology and opportunities for programming that create environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability for the greenway. Adopt best practices to improve watershed health, air and water quality and urban biodiversity. Ensure the greenway corridor is sustainable operationally through a coordinated program between Great Rivers Greenway, the City of St. Louis, and other partners.

Community Goals:

Address the health of the natural environment throughout the project and consider wildlife. Use sustainable practices to reduce maintenance and replacement needs such as native plantings, locally-sourced, recycled materials, thoughtful water use and renewable energy.

PROMOTE DESIGN EXCELLENCE

Design Goals:

Set a standard for future greenway improvements through fundamental urban design methodologies and placemaking techniques. Recognize that the sum of the increments defines the whole. Determine design guidelines that set the standard for future and evolving greenway improvements.

Community Goals:

Use evidence-based professional expertise to show St. Louisans what a world-class project looks like and demonstrate why design choices were made.

BE ASPIRATIONAL AND ACHIEVABLE

Design Goals:

Design a greenway that answers to functional and programmatic needs but has elements that celebrate its uniqueness and its importance as a fundamental element of infrastructure for the continuing evolution of the city.

Community Goals:

Create a unique, compelling and dynamic experience that connects people to St. Louis that can be built “in my lifetime” and created to last for future generations.