Creative Crosswalks
Location
Long Beach, CA
timeline
2021—2024
Role
Consultant
Services
More Info
City Fabrick’s Creative Crosswalks transform everyday intersections into vibrant, people-centered public spaces.
Designed in collaboration with local artists, residents, and City partners, these painted crosswalks use color, pattern, and storytelling to reflect neighborhood identity while improving visibility and safety for pedestrians. Installed at multiple locations throughout Long Beach, each crosswalk is uniquely informed by community input, ensuring the artwork resonates with local culture, history, and aspirations. From playful motifs like the School of Fish crosswalk to bold graphic designs that uplift corridors along MLK Jr Avenue, these projects demonstrate how small-scale design interventions can create moments of pride, connection, and care in the public realm. Supported through public funding sources such as Community Development Block Grants and implemented in partnership with City departments and community organizations, Creative Crosswalks are both functional infrastructure and civic art. They help calm traffic, highlight pedestrian priority, and invite residents to see their streets as shared spaces shaped by collective creativity.
Urban + Systems
Planning + Policy
Building + Interior
Landscape Architecture
Graphic
Our School of Fish crosswalks, developed through the City of Long Beach’s North PBNIS initiative, bring movement and local character to the Starr King and College Square neighborhood near the Long Beach–Compton city line. Community members wanted imagery that celebrates Long Beach and offers a sense of arrival. The resulting design features bright blue and yellow fish swimming south toward the ocean, playfully joining pedestrians on their journey across the street. The artwork not only reflects neighborhood identity but also enhances safety by alerting drivers to the crossing from a distance. Further north along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, City Fabrick collaborated with residents to design a series of decorative crosswalks at MLK Jr and 19th, MLK Jr and 20th, and MLK Jr and Hill. Supported by Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, these improvements mirror the goals of the School of Fish installation: to elevate pedestrian visibility, celebrate local culture, and root safety enhancements in community voice. Each location’s design and placement was shaped by direct input from neighbors, ensuring the artwork reflects the character, priorities, and spirit of the surrounding blocks. Together, these creative crosswalk projects highlight how public art can serve both beauty and purpose—strengthening identity, improving safety, and transforming familiar streets into places that feel cared for and uniquely Long Beach.
