Urban planners have big plans for 13th Street corridor (Columbus: condo, hotel)

[Airforceguy]

Imagine 13th Street closed to vehicular traffic from Lakebottom to Broadway. The urban planners from Gehl Studios can, and it’s one of the ideas they brought to Columbus this evening in their final presentation of the Minimum Grid plan to better connect different sections of the city.

Thirteenth Street would not be closed to traffic permanently, of course, nor even very often, but only for possibly half a day on a Saturday or Sunday, every now and then.

It would be akin to a program in New York City, called Summer Streets, where Park Avenue is closed to automobiles for about six hours from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, about seven miles, on three consecutive Saturdays in August, Gehl planner Julia Day told a crowd of about 100 people in the theater at the Columbus Museum tonight.

With attractions and events along the way, New Yorkers turn out in huge numbers to walk or ride bicycles along the route usually dominated by automobiles, Day said. In Columbus, it would also get people used to looking at 13th Street along that stretch as a vital alternative transportation connection between Midtown and Uptown, she said.

That would help pave the way to Gehl’s ultimate goal, which is to make that corridor a much more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly connector between midtown and downtown.

Day and her Gehl colleague Matthew Lister said they had earlier in the months-long project, determined five “civic assets” that need better connectivity between them. The 13th Street corridor was one of three of those assets that Gehl took a closer look at over the last couple of months and included as possible pilot projects

Read more here: Urban planners have big plans for 13th Street corridor | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Urban planners have big plans for 13th Street corridor | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

[NewsofColumbus]

I wouldn't want to ride my bike on 13th street during rush hour traffic.

[Columbus1984]

Sounds like a cool idea. I still want more focus on downtown. High-density residential, more hotel, and office space.

[columbusgametro]

Originally Posted by Columbus1984

Sounds like a cool idea. I still want more focus on downtown. High-density residential, more hotel, and office space.

Yeah your right downtown columbus need more high density. I was walking on the riverwalk the other and was thinking a 12 story condo would look nice on the land that sit's between the 13th street bridge and the 14th street bridge over looking the whitewater. I don't understand why columbus can not build it self a skyline.