The City of Hayward has seen their downtown deteriorate due to business relocating to peripheral malls, buildings going vacant due to earthquake damage, and the streetscape falling into disrepair. The City has begun an ambitious streetscape rehabilitation project to revitalize downtown, encourage new investments, and create a truly pedestrian oriented place. Taking cues from the many historic downtown buildings, as well as the new City Hall, an art deco theme was incorporated throughout the design to bring cohesiveness to the downtown, and to reflect the unique character of Hayward’s architecture. Proposed sidewalks, kiosks, bus shelters and other streetscape elements have all been designed with art deco character. Gathering spaces at the mid-block crossings will invite pedestrians, promote safe street crossings, slow vehicles, and provide for cafe seating. New street trees have been carefully blended with a small portion of the existing mature street trees to mitigate the impact of total removal. A signage program has also been developed to help identify and encourage use of municipal parking lots. One of the unique features of this way finding program is the proposed gateway arch at the edge of the downtown.