City awaits final plan, cost estimates for downtown Boulder mall redesign

BOULDER — They’re talking about cutting down trees.

But final plans for the Pearl Street Mall remain to be seen. The city hosted three meetings in June and July to gather public comment on the redesign of the outdoor shopping area, and most agree that it needs sprucing up.

The question is how the redesign team will do that. Molly Winter, executive director of the city’s Downtown Management Commission, doesn’t expect to see a design plan until October.

“We don’t know when we’ll get the final designs and the cost estimates,” she explains.

The preliminary discussions involved “thinning” trees on the west and east ends of the mall and adding a pop-jet fountain on the 1300 block in front of the courthouse. Richard Foy, a partner at Communication Arts, which is working on the redesign with Boulder’s RRC Associates and OZ Architecture as well as Sasaki Associates of Boston, says some trees will have to go because they are choking each other. Taking them out also will brighten up the area, open up the mall’s gateways and encourage people to explore the rest of downtown. Foy says the pop-jet fountain also would bring more activity and a family-oriented setting to the mall.

Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish, however, doesn’t see a need to change the 1300 block. A fountain near the commissioners’ office downtown was just refurbished, and the county also put $500,000 into the courthouse lawn.

“That’s something that we’re going to take under advisement,” Winter says. “I think there’s still strong support from every other sector for some kind of interactive fountain. On the other hand, I have a feeling that that’s going to be one of the most expensive items on the list.”

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