Green Corridor » Lighting

October 12th, 2012, 4:44 pm

(Above) This is one image of the selected alleyway for our project in process.

With project presentations approaching quickly, the team had set out in searching of an alleyway that needed dire transformation. We have searched and found an ally on 39 Park Street, Windsor Ontario. This particular alleyway was one of the worst alleys in the downtown area. The pavements are cracked and uneven, as was well as, other issues such as: dangling cable wires, filthy garbage, rusted medal, and molds going on the sides of stores. This poses health issues and potential rodent infestations.

However, there is potential in transforming this alley into a beautiful walk and drive way for pedestrians and store owners. In addition, the accommodation of better ways to keep trash secured, clean and off the street ground. The lighting in that particular alley is decent for safety wise. Only issue is that it is unappealing. The lighting used in this alleyway look the same as the ones found in prison movies. The comparison is quite frighting and not the kind of idea we want people to perceive as they walk into this alley. But we don’t blame them. The pale gray walls, bared windows and urine stained walls cry’s for an urban transformation. Our hopes at the end of this project is to transform this particular alley into a flourishing walkway that would attract the attention of pedestrians and offer a positive perspective that these neglected streets can be saved.
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A Neglected Corridor

October 3rd, 2012, 1:38 pm

Welcome back to our weekly blogs, we have new updates we would like to share with you and we hope you enjoy it!

(Above) This picture taken by Sandy Chehade, provides insight on some of the alleyways located in Downtown Windsor.

While still keeping our original plan to light up the night with new designs of street lights, we made a slight change as to where our focus should be directed towards for this project. In the early stages we introduced the idea of recreating and improving Windsor’s downtown lighting with the intention of increasing the safety of the pedestrians particularly in areas where lighting is not available. After further analyzing and exploring this idea in depth, it was obvious that the streetlights in alley ways and abandoned parking lots were only a small portion of the bigger issue Windsor faces in its solution for safety.

When you take a look at Windsor’s downtown, many of us notice all the effort made to enhance the city’s appearance and bringing it to life, but the full credits should never go to the actors on a theatrical stage, it is the behind the scenes team that is often forgotten about. In this case, it is the alleyways of our city that is often overlooked and discarded. Whenever the image of an “alley” is brought up, almost immediately a”negative” reflection follows, hence why our team is diligently working hard to transform that image into a pleasant one.

(Above) This photo, also taken by Sandy Chehade, of a randomly selected location in Downtown Windsor provides us with a night-shot look of several neglected alleys.

As scheduled in our timeline, the team visited several locations this week to gather photos (above) along with information regarding the city’s policy and regulations for alleyways. We have realized that this project will not only depend communicating with the city councils but also with the community and business owners whose shops often lead to the alleys. We are anxious to start transforming and implementing our idea to the world, and we can`t succeed without your help! So stay tuned for more updates from our team through our rapid progress. Thank you.

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