Delmar East Loop Streetscape
St. Louis, MO
2026
Remaking the Divide
Delmar Boulevard is one of the most written-about streets in America — a corridor whose north-south divide has been documented, studied, and cited for decades as a physical expression of St. Louis's deeper inequities. The East Loop Streetscape project does not treat that history as background context. It treats it as the design brief.
The existing condition along this stretch of Delmar was straightforward and damaging. Two travel lanes in each direction, on-street parking on both sides, a dedicated curbed streetcar lane, and sidewalks reduced in places to four feet — together consuming 78 percent of a 100-foot right-of-way. Traffic moved fast. Pedestrian crossings were unsafe. There was no shade, no meaningful green infrastructure, and no public gathering space. A thorough traffic and safety study confirmed what residents already knew: the corridor was highly prone to crashes and reckless driving, driven largely by a street design that invited speed.
Client
East Loop Community Improvement District
Size
0.62 Miles
Acknowledgement
Work Completed by the Kanopi Gap team while Employed at LJC Design & Engineering
The design response is a road diet. One travel lane in each direction. Parking reconfigured and rationalized. Space reclaimed for people. A 10–12 foot shared-use path runs continuously along the corridor. Curb extensions and realigned crossings shorten pedestrian exposure at key intersections. Planted bump-outs and a new tree canopy begin to green a corridor that had almost none. Pedestrian-scale lighting replaces the existing oversized highway-style fixtures. Flexible amenity zones give local businesses room to activate the sidewalk edge.
At the Hamilton Avenue intersection — the corridor's most crash-prone point and its greatest civic opportunity — the design concentrates its energy. Safer, shorter crossings. Additional seating and gathering space. A pocket park connection to Lucier Park to the south. And a culturally inspired Loop Trolley mural, drawing from the neighborhood's jazz heritage, the Mississippi River, Chuck Berry, Art Deco, and the Loop's own identity — embedded in the trolley lane and running the full length of the corridor as a continuous piece of public art.
The process that produced this design is as significant as the design itself. The team began with a public survey — results made safety the overwhelming priority, with residents citing reckless driving, insufficient shade, and the absence of safe crossings as urgent concerns. A public open house at STL Artworks allowed the community to vote on design features, respond to emerging concepts, and shape the Hamilton intersection character directly. Then came Park(ing) Day: in collaboration with the local ASLA chapter and Washington University students, 1,200 feet of Delmar were temporarily transformed using paint, planters, and reclaimed parking spaces. Vehicle speeds dropped noticeably. Foot traffic increased. Local business owners reported the difference. The community saw what was possible — and the project earned the broad support needed to pursue permanent implementation.
The corridor was extended during the design process to reach DeBaliviere Avenue — nearly doubling the original scope to better stitch together the Delmar Loop to the west and the Maker District to the east, while strengthening connections to the St. Vincent Greenway and Forest Park. The next phase focuses on securing a Surface Transportation Program Shared Grant to bring the full vision to construction. The corridor is on track to become a safer, more connected street by 2030.
