Sterling, CO Front Street
The most illustrious option to screen the rail yard and provide a visually pleasing end cap to Main Street.
The existing site conditions as viewed from the last block of Main Street looking across Front Street towards the rail road yard.
Alternate A provides the simplest and most cost effective design solution.
Elevation of Alternate A:
The brick wall with decoratve columns is just long enough to block views from main, and provide a backdrop for the landscaping. Shrub roses set within a low planter give depth to the site, and highlight the bronze plaque that designates Main Street Sterling. Comfortable benches sit at either end of the wall to allow for people watching and create a visible meeting area. A landscape buffer parallel to the sidewalk runs the entire length of the site.
Alternate B proposes that the brick wall should run the entire length of the site, providing continous screening of the rail yard. A landscaped buffer runs between the wall and the patterned concrete sidewalk.
Elevation of Alternate B: The brick wall is decorated with columns and potentially brick murals of local history by the reknowned artist of Images in Brick, Jay Tschetter. The focal area is set back, which allows space for the water feature and raised planters. Spring Snow Crabapples provide vivid spring color, and the shrub roses and lilies are constantly in bloom from summer to first frost.
Alternate C is the most visually impressive, the set back at Main Street is enhanced with the brick wall like the other two alternates, but it also has a pergola to shade visitors to the murals and frame the bronze Main Street plaque.
Elevation of Alternate C: This alternate is eye catching and would be the show piece of downtown. The Pergola and showy Eastern Red Bud frame the brick murals and the bronze Main Street Plaque. All of the rail yard is screened by the continous wall and landscaping. The tiered design with trees and vegetation in front of the low planter, and behind it against the wall, give the space a plaza like feel. Evergreens along the back of the wall create a dense screen to ensure that the barren yard is entirely hidden.
Sterling is tucked into the plains of north eastern Colorado, and as the most populated city in Logan County it is the focus of retail and commerce in the region. The historic downtown is a thriving commercial district with considerable inventory of historic buildings and streetscapes. The focus of the downtown on the east side, and at the end of Main Street, is the railroad maintenance yard and trackage. This barren ground detracts from the quality of the shopping district. Local merchant groups asked for a showpiece monument at the end of Main Street that would block views of the railroad yard and be a welcoming feature to accent the history of their downtown.