AdAmAn Alley
AdAmAn Alley is a creative placemaking initiative that transformed a rundown and underutilized alleyway in the heart of Downtown Colorado Springs. The project celebrates a local mountaineering club’s unique role in the history of the region while exploring the community’s connection to its regional landscape.
Agency
Downtown Partnership
Practice Area
Client
Downtown Partnership / AdAmAn Club
Industry
Colorado Springs is located at the foot of Pikes Peak (also known by its original Ute name, Tava Kahv, or Sun Mountain). The peak is nicknamed America’s Mountain, but it has held special significance for many diverse groups, from the area’s earliest Indigenous communities to today’s residents, visitors and outdoor adventurers from around the world.
Since 1922, the AdAmAn Club has helped the community further connect with Pikes Peak by presenting a glorious annual fireworks show to ring in the New Year, ignited at the summit and visible throughout the entire region. The mountaineering club exemplifies the community’s spirit of adventure and perseverance in overcoming adversity.
The Challenge
Before the project, the alleyway was a patchwork of crumbling asphalt with drainage problems. Over two dozen dumpsters lined the alley in addition to separate oil and grease containers. The project scope not only included public art enhancements, but also critical infrastructure improvements that ensured the creation of a safe and welcoming public space for the community to enjoy. Waste collection was consolidated into two compactors (one trash, one recycling) and a shared oil recycling container. Utilities infrastructure that was more than 100 years old was upgraded. The alley was repaved in concrete textured to evoke the granite on Pikes Peak. Bollards placed at the east and west entrances greatly reduced vehicular traffic.
Project Vision
AdAmAn Alley has brought the spirit of the AdAmAn Club and Pikes Peak to the urban environment of Downtown Colorado Springs. The public art installations throughout the alley pay tribute to both the club’s history and the community’s relationship with mountaineering and the natural world.
This mural symbolizes the power of community. The burst of light over the peak pays homage to its original Ute name, Tava Kahv (sun mountain).
David Lauer Photography
In the heart of the alley, projection brings a mural to life with images of the flora and fauna of the Pikes Peak region.
David Lauer Photography
Design + Execution
Seven murals (painted and vinyl) attract viewers, encouraging them to enter the alley and explore. A parklet in the southern leg of the alley includes sculptures of regional native plants. Additional project elements employ visual language familiar to outdoor enthusiasts: lettering and sign colors that evoke vintage National Park Service trail signs, blue diamond trail blaze markers, and a rendering of the trail going up Pikes Peak in the alley pavement. The trail is oriented with the trailhead on the eastern entrance of the alley, so visitors have a stunning view of the peak to the west as they follow the Club’s journey to the summit.
Of particular note are two light art installations. A two-story LED mesh screen installed at the western alley entrance presents a spectacular animation of fireworks above the placename archway. Further in the alley, one of the murals is illuminated at night by a dazzling projection depicting the region’s vast natural beauty. Lush forest, high prairie, and native flowers grow and bloom, revealing the region’s creatures great and small in all their splendor.
At the south entrance to the alley, a parklet with sculptures of regional native plants provides a place to linger and socialize while enjoying vinyl murals of archival imagery.
David Lauer Photography
A mural just inside the west entrance includes lyrics from the AdAmAn club song in the style of the WPA posters of the 1930s.
David Lauer Photography
The alley provided a magical setting for a six-course dinner and dance party.
Tom Kimmel
Visual elements throughout the alley evoke trail vintage trail signage and colorful renditions of rock cairns mark the approach to the summit.
Stellar Propeller Studio
Project Details
Design Team
Downtown Partnership
Photo Credits
David Lauer Photography, Tom Kimmel, Stellar Propeller Studio
Open Date
December 28, 2022