The City of West Hollywood is revamping the Sunset Strip sidewalks with new public parklets outside of WeHo Businesses. The project known as The Sunset Experience is testing ideas to make Sunset a better place to walk. People will soon see seats on the sidewalk under colorful light poles from east to west. There will be a place to sit under umbrellas near Book Soup, and four intersections extended with bold strokes of color. Bright posters on the light poles will point pedestrians to spots for food, drink, and entertainment — and share tidbits of history about the Sunset Strip.
Art by the Art of Chase is also part of The Sunset Experience to liven things up with a splash of color when pedestrians cross the street. Art of Chase is responsible for painting the parking lot located across the street from Book Soup, on the north side of Sunset Boulevard, next to the Tower Records building.
The pop-ups public parklets aim to create spaces to welcome pedestrians, invite walking, encourage interaction and draw attention to Sunset as an exciting place for people, not just cars. They will be up for six months.
After six months, the city will evaluate the success of the pilot projects, creating a “Streetlife Action Framework” (SAF) for Sunset Boulevard. The project team will use visual storytelling of the pilot process and survey findings to provide recommendations for future actions on Sunset Boulevard and key takeaways for the City and stakeholders that are clear and evidence-based. The SAF may include recommendations for corridor-length streetscape improvements, intersection treatments, site-specific interventions and programming suggestions to activate streetlife and improve pedestrian safety, as well as a process for using additional pop-ups to test, measure and refine changes to the design and programming of Sunset Boulevard.
The city hosted an event to launch the pilot projects on December 4, outside of Book Soup. The event provided food and music to give community members an opportunity to learn about it the new puplic parklets and provide feedback.
For more information, visit www.weho.org/sunsetexperience or contact Garen Srapyan at (323) 848‐6827 or at [email protected].
