Silverton | First Forty Feet

Silverton Main Street & Plaza

Project

Year

2025

Location

Silverton, Oregon

Client

City of Silverton

The Challenge

Carrying Silverton’s Story Forward

The Silverton’s historic downtown has long embodied the charm of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. On summer First Fridays, streets close to cars and come alive with outdoor dining, pop-up vendors, and live music—boosting business visibility and encouraging people to linger. Yet, aging infrastructure, narrow sidewalks, and declining street trees impact comfort and accessibility of these streets for people.

To address this, the City envisions Main Street as a model “open street” for placemaking and the area beside City Hall as the downtown’s “living room”—a welcoming, resilient civic space that preserves historic character while supporting the future. First Forty Feet led conceptual design and community engagement, while MacKay Sposito delivered the engineering solutions needed to turn vision into reality. Together, the team created a plan grounded in community identity and technical durability, ensuring Silverton’s civic heart will thrive for generations.

Silver Creek

Silver Creek is central to Silverton’s story. The town grew along its banks, where early industries like Fischer’s Mill harnessed its energy, and the creek gave the city both its name and identity. Flowing from Silver Falls State Park through downtown to the Pudding River, it connects the natural landscape to daily life. As both a literal and symbolic thread, Silver Creek inspired the plaza design—its flowing character and role as a connector shaping a civic space where people and place come together.

Inspiration

The Civic Plaza beside City Hall was designed to reflect the best qualities of Silver Creek—serving as both a park and a plaza. Flowing paving patterns, stone-like benches with wood seating, and native plantings recall the creek’s movement and habitat. The space acts like a bend in the creek—where activity slows and people gather.

At night, shimmering lights evoke water under moonlight, making the plaza both a civic stage and a living story of Silverton’s connection to nature.

Uses

The plaza offers a range of experiences for everyone—from the active extrovert to the quiet introvert. A public lawn and stage canopy host performances and community events, while shaded seating and native plantings provide spaces for reflection. A water feature ties the space back to Silver Creek, and a mill-inspired community building anchors the edge, creating opportunities for gathering and civic use.

A New Community Building

A contemporary public building, Eugene Field Hall, anchors the plaza, drawing inspiration from Silverton’s historic mills. Simple rooflines and warm materials recall the past, while large windows open to the plaza to invite activity. Designed for markets, meetings, and community events, it serves as both a visual landmark and a flexible civic hub—connecting Silverton’s industrial heritage to its future.

Main Street: Silverton’s
Front Door

Main Street has long been the backbone of Silverton—its historic storefronts and cafés capturing the town’s small-scale charm. The redesign focused on enhancing the “first forty feet” from the building edge outward, creating a downtown that feels more active, comfortable, and connected. Sidewalks were widened for outdoor dining and strolling, while new street trees, planting zones, and updated tree wells improve both stormwater management and the pedestrian experience. Decorative paving at intersections and crosswalks calms traffic and creates safer crossings. Flexible curb zones support parklets, events, and deliveries, while new lighting, seating, and signage complement the historic architecture. Together, these improvements anchor downtown, with Main Street serving as a welcoming entry corridor at one end and Plaza Park beside City Hall as the community’s “living room” at the other—reaffirming downtown as the heart of community life.

25-0303 Silverton Main Street Today3.jpg

First Forty Feet OUT

The redesign of Main Street strengthens the first forty feet from storefront to street with wider sidewalks, new trees, safer crosswalks, and flexible curbs—creating a welcoming main street for daily life and community events.

Through the redesign of Main Street and the new Civic Plaza, Silverton is shaping a downtown that honors its past while embracing its future. By drawing inspiration from Silver Creek, recalling the legacy of the mill, and reimagining the first forty feet, these two projects create spaces that are welcoming, adaptable, and resilient. Together, they are important investments—ensuring that a better city will exist in Silverton for future generations to enjoy.