The mountain resort of Leavenworth, WA is a tourist mecca, drawing hundreds of thousands of people a year to its quant, Bavarian-themed streets, and the surrounding natural beauty of the Wenatchee Valley.

Having tested closing their main street—Front Street—to traffic during the pandemic, the City and business leaders sought to understand whether they should make these closures permanent and, if so, how might they begin to remake their entire streetscape to make it an explicitly welcoming place designed for, and catering to, pedestrians. Working with the community, MxM propsed ten placemaking strategies that the City will use to formalize Front Street, including adding retractable bollards, upgrading long-deficient infrastructure, and building a seamless building-to-building public realm.

One of the Front Street business owners told us, “If not for the pandemic, we never would have closed this street, but now: we’re never going back.” MxM is proud to helping the City chart the course for what Front Street can become for Leavenworth’s visitors be supporting the city advance this important conversation forward.