Pearl Street Mall
Encyclopedia
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
. The pedestrian area stretches from the 1100 to the 1400 blocks of Pearl Street (inclusive) and is home to a number of locally-owned and operated businesses and restaurants as well as the Boulder County Courthouse.
About
The Pearl Street Mall is a popular destination for tourists visiting Boulder and for students attending the nearby University of Colorado at BoulderUniversity of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
. The mall hosts a blend of locally-owned businesses and national chain stores and restaurants. It is also home to much of Boulder's nightlife. During the summer months, Pearl Street Mall is the stage for a number of street performers (or Buskers
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
), including musicians. It is also a favorite gathering spot for many of Boulder's homeless people.
The Pearl Street Mall is filled with public art, including numerous fountains and sculptures as well as a sandbox for children, a stylized map of Boulder County
Boulder County, Colorado
Boulder County is the sixth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county seat is Boulder. The most populous municipality in the county and the county seat is the City of Boulder...
and a number of small gardens which are planted with a variety of flowers and trees, most notably tulips in the spring.
The Mall is at the heart of downtown Boulder, in the western part of present-day Boulder. The area is a historic district and many of the buildings are among the oldest in Boulder. The Boulder County Courthouse is located in the 1300 block on the north side of the mall. Though the courthouse no longer houses the actual courts for Boulder County
Boulder County, Colorado
Boulder County is the sixth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county seat is Boulder. The most populous municipality in the county and the county seat is the City of Boulder...
, it is home to some of the administrative offices for the County.
History
The Pearl Street Mall was constructed between June, 1976 and August, 1977 and was officially dedicated on August 6, 1977. The design team consisted of three firms: CommArts, Inc. (Boulder), Everett Ziegel Associates (Boulder), and Watertown, MassachusettsWatertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
-based Sasaki Associates.
Scenes from the movie Catch and Release, which was set in Boulder, were filmed on the Pearl Street Mall in July 2005.
The traffic signal at Broadway and Pearl was the first in the U.S. to feature a visible countdown timer for pedestrians to cross the street safely.
In the TV series Mork and Mindy
Mork and Mindy
Mork & Mindy is an American science fiction sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC. The series starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-man egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate...
, the New York Deli where Mork worked was located on west Pearl Street, though it closed in 1999.