Design
The F Street Connectivity project is part of the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center development. Its goal is to provide a modern urban pedestrian link that connects Anchorage’s major public facilities and employment centers. These facilities are located on or near the F Street corridor and include the Egan Center, Town Square Park, the Performing Arts Center, City Hall and the new Dena’ina Center as well as the Atwood Building and its associated new parking facility, the Linny Pacillo Parking Center.
The design concept for the project is based in its strong pedestrian focus. When completed in September 2008, it will provide a year around multi-purpose pedestrian corridor complete with site amenities and pedestrian scale finishes, materials and lighting. The project will improve pedestrian connectivity among the various public facilities, but will also significantly improve vehicular circulation with drop-off and pick-up access.
The design emphasizes flexibility of use, so public events both large and small can safely occupy the corridor in any season. The standard operation of the corridor will be a pedestrian focused environment with two-directional local vehicular traffic. The corridor will be able to support large events with no vehicular traffic and accommodate the physical needs of events in the center of Downtown.
The finish surface is designed as an interlocking concrete pavement system with large, 12”x12”, colored pavers to provide human scale, easy wayfinding and local interest. It is integrated with a snowmelt system for ice free conditions year-around while being able to meet the demand of vehicular traffic loads. The traffic areas are not separated from the sidewalks by curbs, rather they are identified by color, bollards and street furniture in an uninterrupted continuous surface design. A great variety of site amenities provide added functionality within the corridor. Benches, litter receptacles, bike racks, bollards, pedestrian scale lighting, banners, hanging baskets and a pedestrian canopy is planned to add the right amount of color and interest in a clean, simple, and coordinated manner to bring about a true clutter free streetscape in the heart of Anchorage.
