Renaissance Park

[tozmervo]

I finally got to check out Renaissance Park, and I am extremely impressed. I didn't really understand what was being built there (or why it was taking so long), but its a great example of what progressive site design and thoughtful human design can do.

The integration - even celebration - of water quality improvement is a great lesson for all. Especially with Chattanooga's notorious history with water cleanliness, I hope park visitors leave with a better understanding of what development can do to our waterways.

I love that they made use of the terrain that was inherited: rather than flattening it out for more field space (Coolidge Park has plenty), they beefed it up and made some really excellent and fun hills for climbing and cardboard-sledding.

I'm also a big fan of the trail-of-tears inspired artwork over the small pedestrian pier. It's one of the more thoughtful pieces of public artwork I've seen in a while. It's not absurdly abstract to the point of pointless, nor is it realistic to the point of boring.

Sorry, I didn't have a camera handy or there would be photos. The light conditions sucked at the time anyway - too much glare.

[flickr set]