King Street Pedestrian & Streetscape Improvements

Located in historic Sheperdstown, West Virginia, Shepherd University is neatly tucked one block behind downtown’s German Street (Main Street). Design Collective was selected to enhance the visual relationship between Town and Gown through the creation of a new gateway to the East Campus and the pedestrianization of King Street, the main drive running through the heart of campus.

The selected design concept proposed reducing King St. from a 54’ street section to a 20’ pedestrian focused environment that also provides service and fire access. This alteration to the existing streetscape reduced impervious surface by 16,000 sf “giving back” a 34’ wide green strip through the center of campus. This additional green visually enhances the campus, creates space for additional trees and plantings, allows area for stormwater capture and infiltration and provides much needed amenity space for students.

The King Street gateway includes two sets of columns built of regional stone with precast base and cap. The center columns are visible from German Street and stand a proud 15’ in height announcing the campus. The side columns serve as the pedestrian threshold into campus and are complemented with custom ironwork overhead. This transformation of campus is the first phase of services provided by Design Collective to aesthetically enhance the campus, making it an attractive regional destination for academics.