For our last project we were assigned an element of the public realm such as sidewalks, trees, or bus stops and were then tasked with creating several boards diagraming these elements and explaining how they either enhanced or ruined public space. My assigned elements were walls fences and bollards of which I decided to explore the nuance of what makes a good bollard.

My First board focused on my renderings of examples I found of my assigned element. These examples were supposed to be located within the Bi-State Sustainable Reinvestment Corridor, an area defined by MARC, the local MPO, as a place of strategic investment for the region. These renderings were completed in Photoshop and highlight the specific element at work in the public realm. Most of my examples were found within the Northeast but several are from downtown KCK and one is just north of Parade Park.

My second board includes additional diagrams of several elements of note. First in the top left I have a site plan of the Wyandotte County Courthouse and Juvenile Services Center to show how bollards are being used to protect entrances to each building. To the right I have elevations showing these entrances and the bollards and walls protecting them. Moving right I have a site plan of the Kansas City Museum and the fence which surrounds its perimeter showing how the fence does not serve to keep people out of the museum but instead guides them to the correct entrance. Below this is a site plan of a bike lane bollard and the entrance to Cliff Drive showing what measures have been taken to close Cliff Drive off to cars and keep cyclists safe from vehicular traffic.

My next board goes into detail about the design standards for specific types of bollards and what they add to the built environment. At the top of the board, I show the Bike Bollard on the sidewalk next to the Cliff Drive entrance. This is a bad use of these type of bollards as they serve as protectors of cyclists in high traffic areas. However, since the Cliff Drive entrance limits vehicular traffic there are not many vehicles coming into contact with the bollard. The sidewalk is also not wide enough for the bollard and cyclists may run into it given how hard to see it is. I have brought in standards from the Great Rivers Greenway a trail network in the St. Louis metro area to show how the bollard is lacking in these ways. Below this is the Wyandotte County Juvenile Services Center entrance which is protected by bollards, walls, and stairs. To show how these protection agents serve their purpose I have brought in FEMA guidelines for Border Security Planning outlining several goals to secure a facility. Balance Security and Vitality is met by the development itself as five years ago this lot was just a parking lot and the bollards, steps, and walls add to the built environment providing vitality to downtown KCK. This leads into the second goal Streetscape Enhancement as the steps provide public seating in a place where people are walking around, and the plantings provide a pleasant atmosphere when walking down Ann Ave. Diversity of Barrier Systems is met by having walls, bollards, and steps to provide protection to the entrance to the facility. This diversity of protection is executed in a cool way by incorporating the natural slope of the street to use stairs to preserve this elevation instead of leveling it out, an interesting practical design choice.