A good downtown needs more than stadiums and skyscrapers. It also needs all the sidewalk-level stuff that, down on the human scale, engages people and makes them want to come back for more.

Step by step, the greater downtown Detroit offers more and more of those interesting bits that add up to a lively streetscape.

The latest, opened this month, is the short pathway, or esplanade, running down the median on Woodward Avenue from Campus Martius south to Larned.

Costing $400,000 and paid for by — what else? — businessman Dan Gilbert’s organization, the walkway features a winding path, street furniture and artwork. It’s only a few blocks long, but it’s the sort of thing that, in addition to all of downtown's other streetscape improvements, adds up to a lively place.

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“It makes it what we call ‘sticky,’ a place you want to come back to,” said Helen Johnson, Quicken Loans Vice President of Strategic Investment, who was involved in the planning. “And we need that if we’re going to drive residential and job growth.”

Designed by a Philadelphia-based firm called Groundswell Design Group now working in Detroit, the esplanade's concept reflects the advice from Fred Kent, head of the New York-based Project for Public Spaces, engaged by Gilbert’s Quicken Loans in 2013 to improve the downtown experience for workers, residents and visitors.

Kent earned fame in urban planning circles for preaching “lighter, quicker, cheaper” — the idea that streetscape improvements can create an impact for a lot less money and time than we might think.

The sandy beach created each summer at Campus Martius sprang from Kent’s suggestions. And Project for Public Spaces has long celebrated movable street furniture — simple folding chairs and small tables scattered about that can be easily moved as people mix and match them to create their own personal spaces.

Campus Martius is filled with movable chairs and tables, and so is the new esplanade. Then, too, the artwork that will adorn the new walkable area will rotate in and out over time. LED lighting in overhead “gates” at the south end will create visual interest at night.

It's part of creating an ever-changing place re-created daily by the users themselves.

The esplanade wasn’t conceived in isolation. Planned with the City of Detroit (which owns the median) and the nonprofit civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership (which will maintain it), the pathway forms a link between Campus Martius and Hart Plaza and the RiverWalk to the south.

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“The esplanade was the connection between those two points,” said Deb Dansby, chief administrative officer for Gilbert's Rock Ventures. “We needed to make it walkable. We needed to make it inviting for people to actually participate and enjoy and engage with that public space.”

Ever since Detroit began to plan for Super Bowl XL in 2006, public and private planners have paid more attention to these sidewalk-level issues. A decade ago, sidewalks on Woodward were widened, historic-themed streetlights erected, and landscaped medians installed around downtown.

The pace has picked up lately. DTE Energy’s new park on the west side of downtown is nearing completion. The city’s new MoGo bike-sharing program launched this week. And the new QLINE connects a lot of the dots along its 3.3-mile Woodward route.

A good downtown needs a lot of everything. It needs the mix of historic and contemporary architecture, major attractions such as the stadiums, and imposing structures such as banks and courthouses.

But a downtown can boast all those things and yet remain sterile without all the little human touches — good sidewalks and street furniture and artwork and pathways that are fun to walk.

Downtown Detroit lacked those sidewalk-level extras for a long time. Now, thanks to creative work by many people, it’s growing into a more memorable place.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.