Main Street Promenade Study

Building upon past planning efforts, a conceptual design vision was developed to transform Main Street (from South Temple to 400 South) into a Pedestrian-Transit Mall.

The project included extensive public and business engagement, with a schedule shaped around the city’s Open Streets festival - a series of events hosted by the Downtown Alliance. Outreach tools included in-person engagement with immersive VR renderings, tactical urbanism, and online surveys. The resulting design concepts will permanently transform Main Street into a welcoming space to gather, shop, dine, play, relax, attend events and connect.

The Main Street Promenade Study transforms the four most historic blocks into a Pedestrian/Transit Mall, and one block of 100 South into the city’s Festival Street.

Inviting, inclusive spaces for relaxing, working, socializing, dining, and performance are integrated along the mall. Recommendations for transportation and multi-modal access, management and maintenance, green infrastructure, and program planning inform plan recommendations. A series of gathering-space prototypes and outdoor patios for restaurants and bars informs the design of each block. The existing tree canopy would be doubled, and the granite pavers that currently make up Main Street’s sidewalks would cover the entirety of the street on these blocks. A multi-use path for bikes and scooters supports multimodal circulation on the corridor.