Funded largely by State and Federal grants, The West Reading Main Street program was created in 1998 to bring streetscape enhancement, facade improvement, and a positive marketing plan to the Penn Avenue business district. The project aimed to make Penn Avenue more attractive, safer, and easier to negotiate while creating stability on the commercial corridor. The scope of the work incorporated new traffic patterns, curb and sidewalk extensions, re-established crosswalks, universal accessibility, and visual enhancements such as landscaping, street lighting, banners, street furniture, new curbs and sidewalks, and signage.

As record architect to the Foundation (WRMSF), K&KA coordinated Paul vanMeter, landscape design consultant; Becker & Frondorf, cost estimating; and Partners Design, graphic design. The design features cast iron light standards and banner poles that match those within Philadelphia’s Center City District, new bus shelters, bench seating, a variety of street trees, and granite curb and sidewalk accents. The aesthetic is consistent over 7-blocks giving pedestrians the sense they are in a unified shopping district. Wayfinding signage invites bicyclists from the Philadelphia-Pottsville trail into West Reading to stop, shop, and eat. The Norfolk Southern rail line steel bridge was painted with identifying graphics to accentuate the gateway entering the municipality and the commercial corridor.

SSM Group/Phase I, and Ludgate Engineers/Phases II and III, consulted to provide civil engineering. Planning was sensitive to minimizing disruption during business cycles and optimizing parking and pedestrian access during construction. K&KA also provided professional services for a 4-year facade improvement program, addressing the WRMSF’s program; to improve or rehabilitate existing buildings.