SPRINGDALE -- "We want everyone to find a place where they can make themselves at home in the park," said Wes Michaels.
Michaels, of Spackman Mossop Michaels Landscape Architects of New Orleans, shared drawings of a renovated Luther George Park with about 60 residents Thursday evening. They gathered at the Shiloh Meeting Hall on the campus of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.
"You can determine your own way to use the park, for your for own needs, your own wants," Michaels said.
Plans for the 15-acre park downtown include a performance atrium, playgrounds for all ages and access to restored banks along Spring Creek.
Jill Dabbs, executive director of the Downtown Springdale Association, said the association's board will work with city over the next month to put together a plan for raising the $8.5 million to build the park.
Construction should begin in summer 2020.
The city received a $642,638 grant from the Walton Family Foundation to implement the city's downtown plan and help pay for improvements to the park, including the design.
Michaels and his team visited Springdale in January with activities for adults and children in the community. The team used these to glean ideas of what the community wants in the park.
"The first thing we heard was, 'The parks are for everyone,'" Michaels noted. Thus, the park plan includes gathering spaces for large events, small events, family events and solitary experiences.
Other community comments fell in several categories, Michaels said -- connectivity, play, events, green, exercise, art and nature.
A pavilion at the center of the park is designed to face a large audience on the west -- 3,000 to 5,000 people -- or a smaller group on the east, Michaels said.
"And when there's no event there, it can have multiple uses at different times of day."
The pavilion cover will stand as an art piece also designed to draw people to the park. The pavilion also will have unique lighting at night.
"You will be able to see it from Emma and the greenway and the neighborhoods around the park," Michaels said.
A concourse through the center of the park will line up with South Water Street off of East Emma Avenue. A second phase of construction would create a pedestrian walk from Emma after utility work is completed along South Water Street. The park plan includes placing infrastructure to expand the park over the years, Michaels said.
"In the past 30 years of history in Luther George Park, it's kind of been one project here, one project there, another project over there .... It's kind of been scattershot," he said.
A double row of trees in an garden alley will replace the chain-link fence surrounding the park. "It's more a buffer, and less of a barrier," Michaels said. "It will strengthen the edge along Park and Meadow. It will really set it off, define it as a park and draw people in."
Resident Ruth Ann Hill asked if native plantings to be used in the park. Michaels said designers want to use as many native species as they can, but the needs of those plants will have to be balanced with the Parks Department's capacity for maintenance.
The playground for children will remain where it is, with the skate park and Kiwanis playground equipment probably remaining in place. Michaels said new equipment hasn't been decided, but he envisions different "playrooms."
"Kids can discover something different every time," he said.
"This is a wonderful idea and very progressive to include the diversity," said resident Margarita Salorzano. "We need that in Springdale because we have a reputation of being very conservative. We need to change a little bit of our past history."
NW News on 08/16/2019