Mercer Corridor Streetscape Design

The Mercer Corridor (often called the “Mercer Mess”) in Seattle is planned to be rebuilt, making over the street into a grand boulevard that laces together the adjacent neighborhoods while providing a dramatic new gateway into the city and to major regional destinations.

Working with a team of engineers and transportation planners for the City, key urban design concepts guiding the reconstruction of the Mercer Corridor were developed. The plan includes a wider, more direct, two-way urban boulevard with wide sidewalks, large-scale trees, bold lighting, and a distinctively planted median. The design establishes Mercer Street as an appropriate location for new pedestrian circulation options; new buildings with the large, sweeping gestures of great urban streets; and public spaces that incorporate unique architectural and artistic expressions.

The project involves transforming Valley Street into a narrow street with calmed traffic, that is heavily planted, where bicycles and pedestrians are provided with generous space, and that graciously accommodates a streetcar. The new corridor will reconnect surface streets on either side of SR-99 and help serve an emerging, urban neighborhood.

Location

Seattle, Washington

Status

Study Completed 2008

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