It acts like a wall; it’s shaped like a bench; and in a pinch, it could serve as a stand for a streetlight.
However you slice it, this so-called “seat wall” has emerged as the centerpiece of a new “streetscaping” plan that Elon’s municipal leaders have approved for a one-block stretch of North Williamson Avenue.
Earlier this week, Elon’s town council gave its unanimous blessing to this conceptual proposal, which augments a downtown masterplan that received the council’s imprimatur in 2023.
Among the highlights of this three-year-old masterplan is the proposed replacement of an old water main beneath North Williamson Avenue, which serves as the primary artery for the town’s downtown development district.
As a corollary to this utility work, the masterplan recommends the removal of the on-street parking that lines the west side of North Williamson’s 100 block, which is home to a profusion of restaurants and retail establishments. This change would allow the town to widen the sidewalk along this side of the throughfare in order to accommodate outdoor dining and other al fresco activities.
As a sequel to the masterplan’s vision for the 100 block of North Williamson, Elon’s town council commissioned a streetscaping plan for this stretch of the thoroughfare. The council assigned this task to the civil engineering firm of Alley, Williams, Carmen & King, which is also the general source of engineering services for the municipality.
Josh Johnson, a civil engineer with the Burlington-based firm, ultimately appeared before Elon’s town council on Monday to present the proposed concept for the 100 block. Johnson said that he and his colleagues have tried to accomplish several goals through their streetscape designs.
“This extends the downtown area, and it really invigorates the downtown,” he said during Monday night’s meeting. “At the same time, we’re trying to improve safety, increase connectivity and create a more inviting corridor for downtown.”
Johnson recalled that one of the challenges that he and his colleagues had to overcome was a difference in elevation between the 100 block’s storefronts and the section of roadway that’s now used for public parking. In converting this parking area into sidewalk, the project’s design team found that new surface would be a few inches higher than the existing sidewalk and the storefronts it passes. The result of this incongruity was an escarpment or fault line that presented a potential trip hazard and marred the aesthetic appeal of the sidewalk.
Johnson said that he and his colleagues seized on the idea of a “seat wall” as a way to overcome the problems caused by this mismatch in grades.
“Conceptually the wall serves a lot of purposes,” the civil engineer elaborated, “as far as not only being a wall but changing the elevation.”
Johnson went on to present some designs for a bench-shaped masonry structure that would effectively cover up the escarpment at the center of the expanded sidewalk. This barrier would separate the pedestrian traffic along the outer sidewalk from the leeward stretch next to the businesses that could accommodate outdoor dining and other, more sedentary activities.
The renderings that Johnson presented to the council showed gaps along the breath of the wall to serve as handicapped-accessible passages and entryways for businesses. These mockups also depicted planters and other ornamentation to enhance the eye appeal of the wall and provide additional privacy for diners.
Johnson’s proposed designs raised some concerns for councilman Randy Orwig, who feared that the expanded sidewalk would create a “choke point” for traffic along North Williamson Avenue. Elon’s town manager Richard Roedner insisted that any bottleneck effect would be no different than what’s currently caused by the on-street parking spaces.
Meanwhile, other members of the council found fault with Johnson’s depictions of street lights along the outer edge of the seat wall. The critics of this configuration suggested that the lights could be placed atop the wall, which the engineer deemed viable since his plans already called for electrical wiring within the barrier.
The council went on to vote 5-to-0 to endorse Johnson’s streetscaping concept, which Roedner pointed out will give the town a leg up as it solicits funds for the proposed redesign of North Williamson Avenue.
“When we submit this for federal funding,” the town manager went on to explain, “we can say that council basically supports this concept.”
