Architect selected for two storey park pavilion

[Matthew]

Asheville based Mathews Architecture will design the two-storey pavilion planned to sit between City-County Plaza and Pack Square when those two downtown parks are renovated. The pavilion is planned for a site at the corner of College and Market streets once considered by the Grove Park Inn for a 15 storey condominium tower. It will contain restrooms, a staffed visitors information desk and a second-floor observation area.

The board also approved a $10.6 million construction budget for the overall project - about $3 million more than once planned. Work on the park is scheduled to begin in summer 2005 and run until late 2006 or early 2007. Pack Square President Carol King said the higher price tag for the entire park project results from a series of modifications and additions that have come about as local residents have discussed the project. She said a landscape architect working on the plan explained it this way: "You've asked 200,000 people to give you their dreams and you've incorporated those dreams into the park."