Lincoln District
Weaving the Urban Fabric in a Multicultural District
Centered on S 38th Street and Yakima Avenue, the shops of Tacoma’s Lincoln District reflect this culturally diverse neighborhood. To support revitalization efforts, the City’s Community and Economic Development Department sought to identify new ways to enhance current streetscape and placemaking elements.
KPG provided initial visioning and identified streetscape opportunities. This work evolved to include discussions about development opportunities within the district. To help developers see the district’s potential, KPG provided architectural renderings of possible building prototypes. The renderings created by KPG ultimately led to the City investing in placemaking and roadway infrastructure projects on both S 38th Street and Yakima Avenue.
KPG provided initial engineering layouts for both projects. In addition to the layouts, KPG collaborated with the City’s engineering group to produce final design documents. KPG also provided final plans for custom streetscape design of sidewalks, crosswalks, pavement inlays, benches, lighting, catenary lighting and district signage. It was important to KPG that the design elements reflected the unique character and culture of the community, so we remained involved with public outreach throughout the project. We worked closely with an artist who assisted with integrating pieces of art into the streetscape.
Since the investment of the streetscape improvements, new businesses have filled once vacant buildings and existing businesses continue to complete additional upgrades.
