Bearden Park in Third Ward, Uptown Charlotte

[krazeeboi]

^ You've been saying this for a while, but it never really clicked for me until yesterday. I drove the family up to Nashville and spent about two hours just hanging around their riverfront park waiting for the Preds game. Nothing at all was going on at the park, but it was two solid hours of good vibes to just laze out on the lawn, make observations about passers-by, and generally just kill time. It really hit home that there's no comparable experience to be had in uptown Charlotte, even though it has about as good an urban fabric as downtown Nashville (with the exception of Broadway, which is still far beyond anything Charlotte has developed). This is just exactly the right time to add that element to uptown, while it can be integrated into other plans. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out; it might be the best place uptown to aimlessly hang out.

Absolutely. I've hung out in the signature urban parks of SC's "Big Three," and truly urban parks are destinations unto themselves. You don't have to have a specific reason to go; it's simply an experience to be had. After a few years of the 3rd Ward park being successful, I truly believe there will be a push to create another, larger park that better reflects the size of the city/metro area (such as what dubone proposed in another thread).

[Miesian Corners]

Can someone explain the "branding" to me? "Big Moon Green" brings up all sorts of images to me--not one of them tied to the celestial body.

[UrbanFuture]

There's also the bidding phase and the engineering phase, each of which takes a lot of time (LandDesign actually gave a timeline, I didn't think to write it down though). Someone has to figure out how they're going to make all those pretty pictures become a reality. The actual construction will take less than a year.

very true. Did LandDesign name a contractor?

[Mobuchu]

Third Ward park continues to move forward. Parks and Rec will be taking the final design to County Commissioners on Nov 20th. They are also still pushing to have it named after Romare Bearden the famous artist. A no brainer if you ask me.....

Here's the email I got this morning:

"As we begin our next phase of design on West and Second Ward Parks, we wanted to pass along a little information:

We are preparing to take the proposed Park Master Plans to the Board of County Commissioners for approval on November 20th.

Momentum continues to grow to name West Park in honor of Romare Bearden, the renowned African American artist, born in Charlotte's Third Ward Neighborhood. As a result, the park's design has evolved to evoke elements of Bearden's life and work. The design intent is not to reproduce Bearden's work, but design a park in a manner that reflects how he developed and constructed his works.

Our design team is continuing to collaborate with the architects and landscape architects of 300 South Tryon to design the promenade that runs from Third Street to the Park entrance at Church Street. We should have a schematic rendering on our website soon.

We are still on track to start West Park (Romare Bearden) construction summer of 2008 and open spring 2009 (in conjunction with the baseball grand opening)

Second Ward Park construction will be coordinated with the third phase development of Brooklyn Village. Construction should start fall 2010 with the Park opening summer 2011"

And a link to the Third Ward Park website.

Edited November 2, 2007 by Mobuchu

[dubone]

With all the detail, I am more and more excited about this park. I think it is a solid design that will create lots of places within the overall site.

I specifically like the 'Paris Memories' section which I believe will be a very popular spot for lunches.

[Raintree21]

A friend of mine who works for Parks and Rec was telling me last night that they are really going to be leaning on this park to be a major entertainment venue with concerts and events. Hopefully this will really bring 3rd Ward alive.

[hueion39]

A friend of mine who works for Parks and Rec was telling me last night that they are really going to be leaning on this park to be a major entertainment venue with concerts and events. Hopefully this will really bring 3rd Ward alive.

For Speed Street, it will almost have to be a concert area. There are fewer and fewer lots available.

[uptownliving]

The final presentation for the 3rd and 2nd Ward parks has been posted on the Park and Rec website. Gives you all the pretty picutres and details. Click here for presentation

Also, this hasn't gotten any press, but Meck Co Commision is scheduled to vote on funding the purchase of land for the Third Ward and 2nd Ward Parks tonight. Instead of doing an outright land swap they are going to go ahead and purchase the land from Mass Mutual and do the swap later. They are doing it this way to bypass Jerry Reese's pending appeal for the court case he lost concerning the Land Swap. Mass Mutual does not want to do the land swap right now with the pending court case...they want a clean title to the land. So it looks like Meck Co will do some short term shell game with some money to make this park happen.

The other interesting thing that popped up in all of this is that CMS is now looking at building the new Ed Center somewhere outside of downtown. No details yet on where that location would be.

[Neo]

I had high expectations for these parks and all of my expectations have been exceeded. I am amazed that such great parks will be a part of Charlotte in the near future. This is truly our little slice of say Millennium Park in Chicago. Much time will be spent in these parks and I'm sure countless others will also be using these parks for the same reasons. Let the construction begin!

[Norm2]

Millenium park in Chicago is soooo awesome! Charlotte will never have anything like it.....

[lewy2000]

The final presentation for the 3rd and 2nd Ward parks has been posted on the Park and Rec website. Gives you all the pretty picutres and details. Click here for presentation

Am I missing something? Those are the same plans from the Oct. 3rd meeting.

[Spartan]

They are different. The base concepts of the park are the same, but the form has changed significantly for the better since the first public meeting.

[Justadude]

Renderings usually exaggerate the appearance, but that one really does look nice. I worry a little about the spaciousness of the middle of the park, that it might not be very useful in off-peak times. But overall this looks like a great multi-use greenspace that will add dramatically to the comfort and atomosphere of 3rd Ward.

[Andyc545]

Renderings usually exaggerate the appearance, but that one really does look nice. I worry a little about the spaciousness of the middle of the park, that it might not be very useful in off-peak times. But overall this looks like a great multi-use greenspace that will add dramatically to the comfort and atomosphere of 3rd Ward.

More importantly it has opened up a huge window for pedestrian envolvement with the enviornment in center city. With a growing center population, it is giving more options to enjoy the things that could have been missed in living in an uptown Condo, like greenspace.

[Spartan]

What that rendering doesn't show very well is the slope of the park and how it all fits together. I was impressed with their final plans for the park, at least as they were described at the meeting. I'm much more optimistic about this park than Second Ward Park.

[dubone]

I'm past the cutoff for when charmeck shuts down all its content, but I'm assuming it is close to the rendering posted the other day, which were extremely different from the 10/3 meeting renderings.

I am very happy with it, although I know that a lot of public feedback was ignored, it is still a fine design that you can really see will have great success. I'm very happy with the changes they made since 10/3, though.

It is interesting and smart that they are doing funds transactions, but still planning them in sequence to have the same effect as the land swap. The good thing is that in the rare chance that Reese wins, the only thing hurt will be baseball, not the whole plan. For most of us here, baseball was the weakest part of the whole thing, even though it was what spurred the idea. I still want baseball, but if it gets canned, then we get all the rest, and then a public sale of the 8 acre site for development.

[Raintree21]

Also, this hasn't gotten any press, but Meck Co Commision is scheduled to vote on funding the purchase of land for the Third Ward and 2nd Ward Parks tonight. Instead of doing an outright land swap they are going to go ahead and purchase the land from Mass Mutual and do the swap later. They are doing it this way to bypass Jerry Reese's pending appeal for the court case he lost concerning the Land Swap. Mass Mutual does not want to do the land swap right now with the pending court case...they want a clean title to the land. So it looks like Meck Co will do some short term shell game with some money to make this park happen.

They decided to postpone their vote until November 20th.

[Charlotte_native]

They decided to postpone their vote until November 20th.

ERGGGG! I'd really like to see some progress and movement at the park site! I can't wait until it is done, I love the plans, everything about them actually, and believe this will really breathe even more life to center city. I lived across from Freedom Park for years and it was fantastic.

[dubone]

One thing I MUST complain about is that it appears that they still have opted for concrete sidewalks for most of the park, except along Mint, if I am interpretting the rendering correctly. Not only is the carbon footprint and runoff factor terrible, which for a county park is a sort of hypocritical, but I think it downgrades the aesthetic of the park. It isn't like bricks are that much more expensive, yet they last a very long time because they can be lifted and re-set. The carbon footprint is still a bit high for bricks because they heat them, but they are local to this metropolitan area, which keeps it much lower than concrete.

The aesthetics, however, is the biggest deal. I know it was mentioned by a number of people at the public meetings, so it is a disappointment. That sidewalk is going to get the random stains, blackened gum blob circles, and unsightly cracks just like every other concrete sidewalk in the city. Considering the path is called the 'Evocative Spine', going with the lowest cost option is sort of tacky.

I'll give them a lot of credit for the rest, but this is a serious omission. I hope I am misreading the rendering.

[Justadude]

^ If that is the case, it is a major disappointment. One thing that visitors have frequently told me about uptown is that they love the brick sidewalks. It's easy to take for granted, but trips to other cities remind me how ugly concrete sidewalks are when they recieve heavy foot traffic. It's hard to believe, given the fact that there is a very consistent use of brick along Tryon and most blocks westward, that they would not use brick in this project.

Anyone know how much more it costs to use bricks rather than concrete?

[Raintree21]

http://www.oldlouisville.com/circa1900/brick-sidewalk.htm while not necessarily a "factual" website, it has some decent information and good points. They say concrete is about 1/3 the price of bricks. They brought up these points:

• In terms of durability, brick has a slight advantage over concrete because it can accommodate small amounts of movement without cracking.
  
• The cost to install a brick sidewalk over a bed of gravel and sand is about 3 times the cost of concrete.
  
• The cost to repair a concrete sidewalk can be from ten to thirty times the cost of repairing a brick sidewalk
  
• The time required to repair a brick sidewalk is very little compared to concrete, it requires no heavy equipment and is relatively quiet.
  
• Brick is more environmentally friendly than concrete because it allows some amount of rainwater to enter the ground where concrete will not.
  
• Brick can be recycled where concrete cannot.
  

[sfmartin]

One thing I MUST complain about is that it appears that they still have opted for concrete sidewalks for most of the park, except along Mint, if I am interpretting the rendering correctly.

Do you think "they" is LandDesign or the County? Either could be petitioned couldn't they?

[dubone]

Both LandDesign and the County. Landdesign is the county's consultants, but it could either be a suggested budget and design by the consultants or simply a prioritization elected by the county, who is paying for the whole thing [as agents of public].

[Raintree21]

Mecklenburg County Commissioners FINALLY approved the money to buy the land for 3rd Ward Park last night at their meeting. Hopefully some work can get started now.

[nowensone]

http://www.oldlouisville.com/circa1900/brick-sidewalk.htm while not necessarily a "factual" website, it has some decent information and good points. They say concrete is about 1/3 the price of bricks. They brought up these points:

• In terms of durability, brick has a slight advantage over concrete because it can accommodate small amounts of movement without cracking.
  
• The cost to install a brick sidewalk over a bed of gravel and sand is about 3 times the cost of concrete.
  
• The cost to repair a concrete sidewalk can be from ten to thirty times the cost of repairing a brick sidewalk
  
• The time required to repair a brick sidewalk is very little compared to concrete, it requires no heavy equipment and is relatively quiet.
  
• Brick is more environmentally friendly than concrete because it allows some amount of rainwater to enter the ground where concrete will not.
  
• Brick can be recycled where concrete cannot.
  

Hmm... if those numbers are accurate I would say brick is not the more expensive option, factoring in 'costs' such as aesthetics and ability to allow absorption, etc., not to mention that long term the repair costs of concrete would have to add up and make a difference.

Perhaps we can start a campaign in which people 'buy' a single brick via small donations (such as a dollar). Even the specter of such a thing might influence the county to push the brick issue if not LandDesign itself.