Creative Campus Streetscape Columbus, Ohio

Services Provided

Urban Design
Documentation
Construction Administration

People Involved

Brian Kinzelman
Darren Meyer
Matt Manda

Designing to define a creative arts and education district

For over a century, the Columbus Museum of Art and Columbus College of Art and Design had operated in close proximity to each other, sharing in varying degrees the use of facilities and programs, but without a greater approach to shaping a campus that celebrated the confluence of these two towering institutions of arts and education.

That changed in 2010 as MKSK convened these art institutions to develop the vision for the Creative Campus. Formally included in the MKSK-authored 2010 Downtown Columbus Strategic Plan, the Creative Campus was a public-private partnership that envisioned a series of public streets, plazas, and greens that helped shape a cohesive identity for the cultural district while supporting the robust functions of daily traffic and activity around the institutions.

Involved from the conception and early planning for the district through the implementation and construction of multiple, phased capital projects, MKSK has been intimately involved in bring the vision for the Creative Campus to reality. The goals of the institutional stakeholders to increase the safety and comfort of students, employees and visitors, is met through use of traffic calming measures and streetscape elements. The creative use of a gradient pavement pattern, plant material, flush curbs, landscaped medians, and decorative street furniture changes the character of the roadways from car-oriented environments to welcoming pedestrian-oriented neighborhood streets.