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Girl splashes through a granite stone water feature in the middle of the downtown plaza

A drone aerial view of the downtown central plaza shows the lawn seating areas, the water feature, stage, and custom pavilion.

A community fall festival takes place on the central plaza, with pumpkins scattered all over, and kids splashing through the granite water feature while their parents look on.

A band plays on a wood platform stage at dusk during the community fall festival.

Tables with wifi and wood seats sit adjacent to the pavilion with twinkle lights dangling overhead.

View from inside the custom pavilion looking out through the door opening and wooden slats to the fall color of the native plantings in the plaza.

Orange lights follow the linear lines of the base of wood stage at desk.

Wide streetscape parkway with native plantings and seating areas

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Westminster New Downtown Central Plaza & Streetscapes

Westminster, CO

A large central plaza is the heart of a new, walkable, urban downtown at the site of a former mall in an automobile-centric suburban community.

The City of Westminster has embarked on an ambitious journey to become the next new urban center on Colorado’s Front Range, beginning with the construction of a new downtown at the site of a former shopping mall. Wenk Associates led the conceptual and detailed design of the streetscapes and a 1.2-acre central plaza for the new downtown.

The Central Plaza is designed to host small gatherings to large festivals year-round, and will be the center of public life for the community. A large assembly space with an open pavilion can accommodate farmers’ markets, performances, and festivals. Sloped lawns provide a place where visitors can gather leisurely to enjoy the Colorado sunshine or view an evening concert. A ‘stage’ can be used not only for performances, but also for lounging and people watching, and an interactive water feature provides ambiance as well as a place to sit or play. Other features in the plaza include a surface area for games, food trucks, and pop-up retail, and plenty of trees for shade. The Plaza was completed in October 2018 and is awaiting new development to fill in around it.

The Westminster New Downtown Streetscape Master Plan offers a framework of street types and designs while establishing distinct district identities within the overall plan. The plan addresses design from back-of-curb to property line and includes streetscape materials, furnishings, vegetation, lighting, signage, and wayfinding elements. The plan provides potential phasing strategies, a cost estimate for implementation, and recommendations for unfunded improvements, such as prototypical conditions beyond the edge of the right-of-way, the inclusion of public art, special garden displays, and other components of the public realm. Several of the streets have been implemented, with a few ongoing as development continues to fill in.

Project Team:
Wenk Associates – Lead Consultants, Landscape Architects
Arch 11 – Architects
Clanton & Associates – Lighting
HydroSystems-KDI – Irrigation
ECI Site Construction Management – Contractors

Client

City of Westminster

Completion year

2018 (Plaza), Streetscapes ongoing

Size

1.2 acres (Plaza)

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