The Downtown Implementation Task Force in partnership with the Downtown Business Association is leading an effort to further enhance and transform the downtown area into a vibrant place where people want to live, work and play! As a part of this effort they’ve developed a new banner to help build and define a “brand” for the downtown area.
The banner design reflects design elements and themes that are present throughout the Bismarck community. Wheat grass is represented on the banners as a downtown design element that is meant to summon images of the prairie and plains that presently exist in downtown Bismarck on benches and pedestrian light poles. Art Deco styling is also identified as a downtown Bismarck design theme and is represented in the banners with the art deco font style and the North Dakota Capitol Building architectural style. The Capitol building decorates the banner and represents an identifiable Bismarck theme as the seat of North Dakota Government. The designer of the banner is Kelsey Ruhland, who serves on the City’s Master Plan Implementation Committee, is a downtown Bismarck business owner (Crabapple Floral) and trained landscape architect.
The Downtown Business Association will install the new banners Thursday, August 28, starting at 1:30 p.m., weather permitting. The installation area is Broadway and Main Avenues from 3rd Street to 6th Street, 4th Street and 5th Streets from Rosser Ave. to Main Ave., and Thayer Avenue from 5th Street to 4th Street. The double banners will be in placed on fifty light poles in the same Downtown area as the winter decorations and will remain in place throughout the year except during the time when the seasonal winter decorations are in place.