Changes afoot

Photograph by Bob Handelman

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Once there was a block-long stretch of High Street running between the Law School and the Beinecke. Old-timers may remember moderate traffic. But today that block is a pedestrian pleasure.

The former road was one of four such blocks redeveloped by Yale: two blocks of Wall Street running from York to College, and two blocks of High Street running from Elm to Grove. Now all of them are wide public sidewalks, bordered by benches, shrubs, and planting beds.

After the completion of this newest (and last) pathway, the stretch from York to College was named Alexander Walk, in honor of former Yale vice president Bruce Alexander ’65. Dev Hawley, head of University Planning and Facility Services, helped spearhead the project and is delighted with the result: “It is a wonderful amenity to the community and to our campus,” he says.