The Virginia Creeper trail boasts of 250,000+ visitors each year. This project involved the creation of Laurel Creek Park to attract these users and further activate downtown. Rivers Point Trail now connects the Virginia Creeper with Laurel Creek and the new Rivers Point Park.
Trail
Expansion &
Public Plaza
The project required thoughtful design and significant coordination with local business owners. Construction finished in 2021 with trail expansion through the heart of Main Street and the creation of a new public plaza along Laurel Creek.
Trail Signage & Wayfinding
Laurel Creek Trail signage was designed and engineered to direct trail users into the heart of downtown.
Destination by Design partnered with the Town of Damascus to integrate the Virginia Creeper Trail, which draws over 250,000 visitors annually, directly into the town’s downtown core. The project created Laurel Creek Park and expanded the trail through the heart of Main Street, adding a new public plaza along Laurel Creek and completing construction in 2021 after significant coordination with local business owners.
In Virginia, downtown revitalization and greenway development come together especially well in small towns positioned along a major regional trail. Damascus reflects that pairing directly, using façade and hardscape improvements alongside trail expansion to activate downtown, while the new Rivers Point Trail now connects the Virginia Creeper Trail with Laurel Creek and the adjoining Rivers Point Park.
A high-traffic regional trail is only an economic asset if it actually draws visitors off the path and into town. Damascus’s project was built around that principle, using thoughtfully engineered wayfinding and signage to direct Virginia Creeper Trail users straight into the heart of downtown, turning passersby into visitors who stop, shop, and spend time in Damascus’s public spaces.
Downtown revitalization planning is the process of designing streetscape improvements, public plazas, and trail connections that draw visitors into a town’s commercial core and support long-term economic vitality. For Damascus, that meant engineering and construction documents for trail expansion, park planning and design for Laurel Creek Park, and a full streetscape and wayfinding package connecting the Virginia Creeper Trail to Main Street.
Damascus sits in southwestern Virginia along the Virginia Creeper Trail, one of the most popular rail trails in the country with more than 250,000 annual visitors. That volume of trail traffic made downtown connectivity essential, giving Damascus’s revitalization project a built-in audience of hikers and cyclists to draw into its Main Street businesses and public spaces.
