2009 Mayor's Urban Design Award Winner

Urban Design Merit Awards

The Village at Regal Pond

Landscape Design & Contractor: Environment West

The Village at Regal Pond

Location:         44^th Avenue & Regal Street, Spokane, WA                    Completed:  May 2006

The Village at Regal Pond was designed to provide the neighborhood with a unique, vibrant and attractive mixed-use development.  Since opening for business in the spring of 2006, the project has been extremely successful.  The restaurants, coffee shop, and other businesses are thriving.  The quality of life of the local community has been improved because people have a place to go to share a meal, meet while having a cup of coffee, do business, or just to socialize and enjoy the refreshing urban spaces.

The project was designed around the existing pond that is now connected to the Greenstone housing development to the west.  The placement of the buildings, the outdoor public plazas, the exterior dining areas, the pedestrian walkways – all of these were strategically located to enhance and preserve the pond.  The new pedestrian bridge over the pond provides a successful and well-used connection to the adjacent housing development.

	A few highlights of the project that provide quality urban design are:
	§    A small outdoor stage area for music performances, presentations and gatherings.
	§    A good balance of indoor and outdoor public and private spaces.
	§    An outdoor dining and socializing space that includes a covered trellis, fireplace, lighting, and    excellent views of the pond.
	§    The second level of one of the restaurants includes a large meeting and gathering area that can be used for a wide variety of public and private events.
	§    The exterior architectural detailing and colors were carefully selected to show creativity, a variety of forms and textures and the use of unique materials, as an alternate to typical “strip malls”.
	§    The exterior site details – such as the tenant signage, lighting, colored concrete, railings and balconies, fountains and water features – all were designed with human scale in mind, to provide richness and enhance the personal experience of the spaces.
	§    The overall design of the buildings and site creates a modern urban village – one that is welcoming and friendly.  The spaces function effectively throughout all hours of the day and over different seasons of the year.

Another important design feature of the project is the enhanced Regal Street with new wide concrete sidewalks, new landscaping, and new street light fixtures that were installed along Regal from 44^th Avenue all the way to 37^th Avenue.  These site improvements helped enhance the new urban corridor along Regal and connected The Village at Regal Pond with the developers recently constructed Medical/Professional Office Building.

The Village at Regal Pond is an excellent example of urban place-making.  There was no “place” when the project began.  Now the site is flourishing with businesses, restaurants, activities and most importantly people.  Walking through the development, a person feels like it is a special place.  The architecture and site design is unique and unlike any other place in Spokane.