The Druid Hill Canopy Crosswalk celebrates green space access while joyfully enhancing street-crossing safety for West Baltimoreans walking to Druid Hill Park. All too often cars endanger residents at the intersection of Druid Hill and Fulton Avenues by blocking the crosswalk, speeding, and running red lights. The artistic crosswalk’s colorful, leaf-inspired design stands out against the black asphalt, reminding motorists to yield to residents on foot. Community members nominated their favorite trees in Druid Hill Park to be represented as large-scale painted leaves on the sidewalks leading to the crosswalk. The sidewalk mural evokes the surrounding towering trees emblematic of the park; including Red Maples, Tulip Poplars, Red Oaks, White Oaks, and Zelkovas. As an act of skill-sharing and employment, youth from local neighborhood organization The Urban Oasis helped paint the sidewalk artwork in exchange for a living-wage.
The Druid Hill Canopy Crosswalk was proposed and installed by public artist and OSI Community Fellow Graham Coreil-Allen of Graham Projects in collaboration with the New Auchentoroly Terrace Association and a team of local artists, residents, volunteers, and community leaders.
Projects Sponsors
The Druid Hill Canopy Crosswalk is made possible through the generous support from Open Society Institute — Baltimore, the Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative (BRNI) in the State of Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development via the Greater Rosemont Mondawmin (GRM) Neighborhood Spruce-Up Grant administered by Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore, as well as a Neighborhood Grant from the Baltimore Community Foundation. The artwork was created using StreetBond pavement coating donated by GAF.
