Client/Project Owner:

City of Sulphur Springs

​

Status

Completed in 2010

​

Aligning Placemaking, Revitalization and Economic Development

Sulphur Springs completed a successful revitalization effort downtown in recent years where over 300 events and public activities are hosted in Celebration Plaza each year. Sulphur Springs is a growing community on Interstate 30 between Texarkana and Dallas.  Celebration Plaza is the City's signature public space. 

​

The square has been transformed from a parking lot to a park. It features a splash pad, landscaping, game tables, bistro areas, and a 50-foot flagpole in the center. Lights dance to music during holidays. This transformation was possible thanks to visioning efforts in 2010 to provide urban design direction and recommendations for select areas downtown. The plans were developed through an interactive, community-driven process. The process was designed to excite community leaders, serve stakeholder needs, and empower the community to take ownership of the plan’s vision and continued implementation. The concept plan for Celebration Plaza were developed with the following principles and values in mind, which were a reflection of the needs and desires of the community: flexibility, convenience, access, safety, heritage, context sensitivity, green, walkable, civic, and beauty. While employed with AECOM, Fabian led the community engagement, project coordination and urban design & visioning tasks for this project.

In addition to the vision plan for Celebration Plaza, the team provided design recommendations to address the streets adjacent to the plaza as part of a traffic calming strategy for the District. The objective was to self enforce driving behavior and speeds in this area to better match the environment and be more respectful of the pedestrian activity associated with downtown uses.

​

The Celebration District was featured as part of the 2015 Congress for New Urbanism Conference.  The district features a general store, sports pub, coffee shops, winery, a live theater, book store, gallery, antiques, jewelry shop, and myriad of local restaurants. The physical transformation that happened over the last years on Main Street and in Celebration Plaza were the catalysts that brought life back to Downtown Sulphur Springs.