JAPANTOWN DESIGN Strategy and Guidelines
GSBS worked with the Japanese American Community, the SLC RDA and area stakeholders to envision a design concept and placemaking strategy for Salt Lake City’s Japantown Street. The one-block section of 100 South, between 200 and 300 West, is all that remains of the city’s once-thriving ethnic neighborhood, dismantled by construction of the Salt Palace in the 1960’s.
The 15-month process included extensive engagement to identify the community’s long-term vision for the street and a strategy for implementation. The resulting design concept focuses on changing the balance of use in the public realm, allocating more space to pedestrian and community uses and less to vehicles. Key to the strategy is a series of placemaking elements that identify and tell the story of Japantown, create a safe and people-oriented streetscape, and bring opportunities for place-inspired art. The design will manifest the Community’s vision for Japantown as a place of remembrance and inclusion that thrives over time. It will add vibrancy, support multi-generational use, encourage gathering, engage the senses and bring intrinsic beauty to downtown Salt Lake City.