Washington Park’s Major Renovation
Artist rendering of Washington Park in Fall of 2011.
Beyond the addition of a 500 car parking garage – needed for the patrons of Music Hall, Memorial Hall, and SCPA – a more detailed plan for Washington Park was presented to the OTR Work Group during the quarterly meeting on April 25th. (The Entire Presentation can be accessed on 3CDC’s website) or you can read highlights of the plan here. The areas discussed below are easily found on the blueprint below.
Music Hall Plaza:
The plaza will serve as an outdoor event venue with Music Hall as the backdrop. The plaza can support a large temporary stage for performances. The plaza is adjacent to a catering station for outdoor events. (How nice for the resident companies of the CAA to be able to perform on their front lawn, with their amazing home as the background.)
Stage:
The open-air stage will provide shelter and audiovisual support for the SCPA, Music Hall arts groups, and other performers. The structure will create shaded areas for seating when not in use for performances. (a more intimate stage, for a smaller group of performers)
Civic Green:
The expansive civic lawn, comparable in size to a football field, will serve as a venue for outdoor performances, programmed events, and active and passive recreation. (a wide open unobstructed view of Music Hall)
Interactive Water Feature:
The water feature will be a major icon of the park, providing opportunities for interaction with water. Sculptural and artistic elements will provide visual interest throughout the year. The design will include features appropriate for a range of ages and a year-round element. (beautiful in the spring and fall and a relief in the summer)
Playground:
The ¼ -acre playground will combine traditional and custom sculptural elements to create a safe and creative play environment. Accessible equipment will be included in the design. The play area will include a connection to the water feature. (the time put into research on engaging children of different ages will make this a popular destination for the whole family)
Bandstand:
The historic bandstand will be restored and modernized for contemporary use. Enhancements will include audiovisual upgrades and the addition of a lighting canopy. (updated and preserved – the bandstand will keep it’s place in history and as the center of the park)
Dog Park:
The Dog Park will have a double-gated entrance to help ensure dogs can only exit with their owners. Play mounds and a water runnel will help to enhance the users enjoyment. Fencing and landscape screening will complete the area. (probably be the place to hang out with hippest canines in town)
The Future:
Financing and Final plans should be completed by June. Look for construction to begin this summer and be completed by the Fall of 2011. Lighting throughout the park will be updated during the renovation.
Overhead view of Washington Park's Featured Areas
This design is a mash up of several ideas that tries to please everyone (dog park in a civic focal point?? gross).
Instead of trying to mimic a Chicago-style park, Cincinnati should opt to model Washington Park after Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square – an elegant space that has hundreds of people in it at any given time, with space for a weekly farmers market. It’s a classical beauty, and would fit in perfectly well in OTR. It even has a fountain to cool off in, and large green expanses under tall shady trees that are large enough for a bandstand and other performances. How nice would it be to have a summer biergarten under the shade of trees in a classical-style park?
This park instead permanently delegates parts of the park to events that may rarely occur. Instead of tuning the park to the needs of infrequent musical events, the park should remember what it should be – a park, not a venue. Sure, it should host events, but those events should orient themselves to the park, and not vice versa. And the huge oval on the northside of the park isn’t big enough to be a sporting ground (which the park should not cater to), and nor does the prospect of occasional performances merit such a huge chunk of the park. In summer, that are will be horrendously uncomfortable. Instead, look at Rittenhouse, or Union Sq. in NYC. Large shady trees with natural-looking breaks in between draw people into a park. Pre-designated areas and partitioned areas do not.
Please, give us a classical Rittenhouse-style park, instead of this “Lakeshore East” style mash-up. And seriously, dog parks just get completely overrun with dog “leftovers.” A nice whiff of that in Cincinnati’s hot and humid summers will do wonders to scare people away. This should be a park for the entire community, and dog-owners in new condos shouldnt be given such a major priority.
I would also like to add that Rittenhouse and Union Sq. are busy, but surrounded by high density residential areas. Lakeshore East in Chicago is the same, the park is completely surrounded by some of the tallest residential towers in the entire country. Yet look at the differences between Ritt/Union and LKE. The first two are PACKED, and are a destination for people from all over Philly/NYC.
LKE instead is pretty empty (except for people in the dog park), and does little to draw people in from other parts of the Loop, let alone the rest of Chicago. and its not just an issue of public transit, Rittenhouse isnt any more conveniently located to trolley lines than LKE is to the L.
The true differences b/w the two arent due to the high-density areas in which theyre located, because all three are in densely packed areas. The true difference is that Ritt/Union are classic, and beautifully designed PARKS, whereas LKE is a park that is designed to be like someone’s backyard, which may work well for brand new condo towers, but OTR has more in common with Rittenhouse’s elegant town-homes than Chicago Loop’s highrise condos. The designs for Washington Park are unfortunately, very similar to LKE (from which I’m sure the architects of this plan drew inspiration). Give us a beautiful, classical park that fits in with the beautiful and classical architecture of OTR.
The park has to be functional and serve the needs of the community and OTR has many different needs. I understand many of Jakob’s
arguments but I would take care not to compare OTR with other neighborhoods because every neighborhood is different and the needs are diferent. We should be really careful not to let form win over function. OTR is an area that right now needs a functional park.
We definitely do not need a farmers market. WE HAVE FINDLAY MARKET!
We also need a park that is simple enough to maintain. Rittenhouse Square is having financial problems that Cincinnati can not afford.
AS for the park design, I believe that big, mature trees are a necessity but it appears in the design that there are some plans for that. Maybe it needs more? A fountain as well as a kids pool and/or water feature is another necessity for the kids in the neighborhood. I don’t have a dog as I assume Jakob does not either but I feel that this is a reasonable request since OTR does not really have anything like that. Jacob’s statement that the park “should not cater to” sporting events or events that may need the large field worries me the most. This community needs a large open, green space for many different events that will benefit both the kids and adults of the community. The joys, health benefits and self confidence that a kid (or adult) gets from playing sports are the things that can help make a community great.
I definitely agree that LKE is pretty, but it is useless as anything but someplace to take a walk. That being said Grant park has numerous play fields of all kinds nearby so maybe that’s all LKE needed to be. Ted Berry Friendship park is a beautiful park for a stroll and that’s probably the best that could be done with that space.
But back to Washington park. I do feel there is wasted space due to the design especially at the North East and West side. I have a Fine Art degree and I appreciate beautiful design probably more than the next guy but the designers need to make some compromises for the sake of the community.
If this park is going to work for the community we’re all going to need to make concessions and work together to make this a park that can help make this community great again!
I think the whole idea of renovating will bring renewed popularity to the park again….we need more dog parks!