The city of Columbus, Indiana is well known for its resolve to make the community beautiful and livable. Columbus boasts impressive modern architecture and landscape architecture designed landscapes. The State Street Urban Trail project solves functional connectivity problems while capitalizing on design opportunities favored by the city. The project team, which includes Browning Day and United Consulting Engineers, adopted a close collaboration between city officials and stakeholder interest groups who are driven to create special public spaces for the community.

State Street Urban Trail Project Vision The State Street Urban Trail was born out of long overdue capital investment slated for East Columbus, a neglected and disconnected industrial section of the city. Pedestrian friendly, multimodal facilities, reclaimed green spaces and streetscape enhancements set the stage for a vital business/industrial corridor and neighborhood revitalization. Similar distinctive urban features of the nearby downtown, such as sculpture, architectural lighting, brick pavers and contemporary green spaces are planned for the State Street project.

Providing a safe connection from East Columbus to the downtown was key to the first phase of the project. Safety and connectivity enhancements included widening Haw Creek Bridge to accommodate a 10' wide trail on the north side, and a 6' wide sidewalk on the south with a protective barrier between traffic and pedestrians. Short outside railings were replaced with a 54" custom cable railing. The bridge over Haw Creek is perceived as the threshold into East Columbus and thus offered an opportunity to create a compelling gateway feature and striking architectural lighting.

Use of Lighting Architectural lighting was very important in the overall design concept for the gateway and influenced the design of the vertical elements and the guardrail walls. The custom Haw Creek Bridge integrates 10, 27-foot tall spires into the bridge railings that extend down to the top of the bridge abutments.

The spire and outer "wing panels" feature precise laser cutouts. The shapes of the perforations are mechanical parts fabricated from local manufacturer Noblitt Fabricating, Inc.

The cutouts create shadows and patterns on the element during the day and were designed to take on a different effect at night. Two narrow-beam Jet luminaires with a 3000K LED color by Ligman Lighting USA are mounted behind the perforated panel "wings' to backlight the cutouts. Custom mounting was designed so that the fixture could be installed through the access door on the trail side.

An up light, "Odessa 2' LED floodlight, also by Ligman, is hidden in a niche at the upper body of the element to illuminate the upper spire from the trail side. A recessed channel is designed into the face of the vertical element to accommodate a pair of ModaLight Super Neon Edge light strips that offers a solid line of light in 2700K color temperature. All internal wiring is accessible through the integrated locked access doors at trail level.