Editor’s Note: We have invited Scott Kratz, director of 11th Street Bridge Park to share with us some of his experiences as he takes this vision of a shared community space that supports health from concept to reality. This is his second post with us. You can see his first post here.
Walking in a city park, have you ever experienced that frustrating moment? Maybe there’s no place to sit down. Or no shelter from the sun. Or there’s no family-friendly restroom in sight. The best civic spaces respond to the needs and desires of the community, but too often residents are left out of the design process. At the 11th Street Bridge Park, we’re working to change that with our new civic space in nation’s capital.
Together with the Washington, D.C. city government and a local non-profit organization “Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC” we’re transforming an aged-out freeway into a new park over the Anacostia River. After an extensive community outreach effort with more than 350 community meetings to date, we have created an amazing list of ideas for our park that were incorporated into a nation-wide design competition.
A primary goal of the 11th Street Bridge Park is to improve public health with this iconic new space. It will offer a safe place to play in a neighborhood that has the highest rates of obesity, and will incorporate healthy edible landscapes that can serve as a backdrop for farmers markets and planting/ harvest festivals for residents that have the lowest access to fresh fruits and vegetables in the region.
The design competition jury shortlisted four teams earlier this year, made up of the best landscape architects, architects and structural engineers in the country. After working all summer and meeting repeatedly with community stakeholders, the four teams submitted their renderings last week.
Now we want to hear from you. After reviewing the concepts here, tell us what you think! Take a short survey evaluating how each design meets our four key project goals. The results will be shared with our competition jury as it makes the final selection. We’ll announce the selected team on October 16. Stay tuned!
