The UW CEP Marina District Wayfinding Project is a wonderful bit of history I hope you'll find useful and interesting. It's from the January 12, 2012 City Council Packet which is one of the more significant Marina-related meetings in our history. The document was a senior-class project for the UW School of Community Environment Planning which goes over their design ideas for the downtown and the Marina. It's only about twenty pages and very readable. I urge you to look at it because it demonstrates some very important ideas we should be thinking about today.
- First of all, they worked in concert with a very wide range of stakeholders including the Public Planning Commission we used to have, the Arts Commission, Destination Des Moines and the Des Moines Historical Society.
- Second, back in the mists of time, there had already been a set of stairs at the end of 223rd leading down to the Marina floor (what is now Parcel A.) They were removed and replaced with Overlook I. They consider 223rd to be the backbone of the downtown and that having a way to connect Marine View Drive with the Marina floor is crucial. Remember this is 2011, many years before the current Holmes Group Marina Steps Project.
- They also take a look at all kinds of low-dollar ways to re-imagine the downtown holistically. They mention a series of tourist amenities like signage, consistent theming, kiosks, etc. Design-wise, they seem to have a bit of a bias towards a historic theme--or at least making the best use of the items that were available at the time. They note that although there is a good deal of public art, they suggest that it is not located in a strategic way, ie. as part of any holistic design.
