Flagstaff Urban Trail System and City Park Standards

The Flagstaff Urban Trail System (FUTS) signage program was developed for the more than 60 miles of public trails throughout the city. Hierarchial needs were extensive to accommodate all wayfinding conditions along trails, city streets, public and private lands and the number of connections and trail intersections. This system consists of trail heads, pathfinders, directionals, regulatory, boundary markers and historic interpretives.

With the completion of the Flagstaff Urban Trail System graphic standards, the City Parks initiated a city wide park assessment of all signagetypes, their physical conditions and

inconsistencies and new design program with JRC Design. The system encompasses 25 parks ranging in size from less than a 1/4 acre to over two hundred acres – many connected via the FUTS. Through complete documentation of each site, evaluation and recommendations for standardization in design and nomenclature, a hierarchy from monumentation through the smallest regulatory sign in the system was designed and developed.

The final package for both projects were graphic standards, a catalogue of working drawings for all signs, with specific fabrication and installation details, easily accessible for future implementation.

The planning and development of a master wayfinding program is the organizational process of design coupled with the psychological process and understanding how people navigate. It is evaluation and research, the refinement of this gained information into goals and objectives, and then the development of communication and design strategies to reach them.