Signs to convey greenway history, sense of place

Designing signs for the Fred Lippitt Woonasquatucket River Greenway is as much about saying a lot with a little as it is about enhancing the evolving pedestrian and bike-friendly link between Providence’s downtown and West Side.

The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council is working with architects and the state to design signs for a greenway that will help the public find and use bike paths and parks, while respecting the diverse wildlife found there.

“[The word] Woonasquatucket is really a mouthful, which is both cool and a challenge,” said senior designer Michaelann Zimmerman, a senior designer with Roll, Barresi & Associates of Cambridge, Mass., noting that the approach is to have a cohesive message of accessibility and respect for the environment.

“In this case, the challenge was how there [are] really different qualities to different parts of the trail,” she explained. “In Johnston it feels more rural, as well as the challenge [of] having a bike path that isn’t all off-road. [The goal is to have] easily recognizable sign types that fill the need, from great, big gateway signs to smaller informational signs.”

- Advertisement -

The signage improvements to the Northwest Bike Trail will extend from Francis Street in Providence to Lyman Street in Johnston.

By spring 2016, work is expected to include installation of several different types of signs, including way-finding, information, decorative, regulatory, directional, warning, and mile markers, said Rose Amoros, chief public affairs officer for the R.I. Department of Transportation in an email.

With additional plans for informational and educational kiosks, artistic graphics and murals, the signage alone is estimated to cost $542,000, said Amoros.

Lisa Aurecchia, the council’s program director, said the value of the signage is not only in its alert the public that the greenway exists; it also emphasizes that it’s an urban wildlife corridor with red-tail hawks, wild turkeys, painted turtles and blue herons; and it provides safety guidelines.

“The signs will … clearly define how to maneuver on the on-road and off-road portions of the greenway,” Aurecchia said.

“It’s about place-making,” added Zimmerman. “By placing a consistent element out there that has the name of the greenway, you create a place that maybe people didn’t realize was there.”

When complete, the greenway will link three parks – Donigian, Merino and Riverside in Providence. It also will run by the Button Hole public golf course in Johnston to connect to Waterplace Park in downtown Providence.

In 2013, Aurecchia said the hope is that the greenway will stimulate investment in Olneyville and surrounding West Side neighborhoods, which are still adjusting to the decline of industrial mills.

“Clearly, if we are creating view corridors and a shared walking path for these mill buildings, where right now people don’t have open space, it will add capital value,” Aurecchia said at the time.

More recently, she said the signage will promote awareness about where bike paths intersect with roads, and as such could spur economic development more broadly.

“People want to live close to places where you can safely bike and recreate. With the signs, there’ll be much more awareness that this path exists and our hope is that we’ll increase use of the bike paths and the whole greenway,” she added.

As of late February signs had not yet been manufactured but were in the final design stage, and reflect key attributes to the greenway, Zimmerman said.

The color brown is being used as a signifier for nature and the woods, since a large element is the gateway: the entrance to the greenway itself.

“The design is like tavern doors welcoming people in,” Zimmerman said, with the name of the greenway to the side and cutouts or silhouettes of bird or land animals on top.

Most of the signs have informational details, including small maps of the greenway that show the connections to the city, from Olneyville Square to downtown, she added.

Trailblazing signs repeat the Woonasquatucket River Greenway logo to make people aware of exactly where the bike paths are and that “this is part of a special route,” she said.

That logo is designed in “big, bold, blocky type,” Zimmerman explained. “It feels appropriate for mill history without hitting you over the head. We felt that in such an urban area the mill history is super-important but the greenness is what we wanted to emphasized to make it like a park system.”

A redesign of Promenade and Kinsley streets is underway to create an off-road bike path, which the signs will help indicate, while getting people to realize there is wildlife right in the center of the city, Aurecchia said.

“We’re trying to get people out into their yards, back into the open space again,” she said.

And the signage will help the public view the parks and paths as a whole greenway linking open spaces, Aurecchia added.

“That concept is hard for people to wrap their heads around,” she added. “The signage campaign is about branding it.” •

No posts to display