City of Ellensburg Visitor Center

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4.4 Enhancing the Visitor Experience 4.4.1 Relocate visitors'center to the core of downtown. Ellensburg should explore the possibility of a visitors'center in downtown.The Wells Fargo Drive Thru could be an ideal location for such a facility as it is in the heart of the community, offers "storefront"convenience,and could also provide public restrooms in the center of downtown. 4.4.2 Implement thorough wayfinding signs. In the most general sense,wayfinding is the process by which we navigate the world.Whether it is our daily commute or a journey to an unexplored locale,we rely on cues,habits,patterns, landmarks,and verbal and visual directions to establish and confirm a working knowledge of our environment. A community wayfinding system takes these cues and creates a seamless system of signs,kiosks, and markers designed to guide visitors to destinations,remind residents of local offerings, facilitate community engagement,and achieve community-specific goals.A wayfinding system typically features various sign types including gateway signage,directional signage,parking signage,pedestrian signage,as well as maps and information guides. A typical wayfinding system utilizes a community's marketing brand graphics and includes gateways,vehicular and pedestrian directional signage,street banners,district and parking signs, building markers,and informational kiosks.Ellensburg has some dated wayfinding signs that are difficult for the motorist to read and reflect older graphics for the community.Furthermore, these signs only begin to appear once a visitor is already in downtown. It is imperative that Ellensburg implement a complete wayfinding plan along with a phased implementation plan to curate the visitor experience through downtown.Examples of wayfinding from another community are shown bc ow in Figure 12. Ty¢cal S n.Medast Figure 12:Example of Wayfinding Plan from Greenwood,SC 37