WICHITA, Kan. – 8/18/2014 – The Wichita Downtown Development Corporation was recently awarded $75,000 from the Knight Foundation Fund of the Wichita Community Foundation in order to derive design concepts that will revitalize the historic Douglas Avenue underpass from its current status into an inviting Downtown gateway. This grant has allowed the WDDC to hire LawKingdon Architecture to lead the design team to assist with the first phase of the project.

The overall "vision" is to transform the underpass from the barrier that it is in its current state, to an inviting connector between Old Town, Union Station, and the core of Downtown. To achieve this vision, a steering committee was formed to spearhead the project, two public input meetings were held to garner community input, and opinion data was collected from multiple online surveys through the City of Wichita’s Active Wichita website. This input played a key role in the final concepts created by LawKingdon Architecture, which address lighting, pigeon mitigation and the inclusion of art and technology in the space. These concepts will be unveiled at a come and go Public Open House on Tuesday, August 26, from 5:00-7:00pm at the WDDC Design & Innovation Center (505 E. Douglas Ave).

“The Douglas Avenue Underpass is vital for the connective tissue of Downtown between Douglas Avenue, INTRUST Bank Arena and Old Town. The concepts created by the design team through public input, have set the vision to transform this space into a walkable, urban environment that will continue to transform the Douglas Avenue corridor and furthers the opportunities identified in Project Downtown,” said Jeff Fluhr, WDDC President.

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