There are new beginnings on the horizon for South Burlington, Vermont. For years, leaders of the city were enticed by the chance to create a true city center and with that develop a tighter knit community. The first step of this process is City Center Park.
The new park includes a network of accessible trails that traverses boardwalks, bridges and gravel walkways. There is a natural playground in the center clearing of these pathways and a large cord wood log spiral in another clearing. Natural areas are preserved and stormwater from an adjacent city street is now being treated. City Center Park turned an undeveloped area right in the middle of the city into a beautiful oasis signaling the start of something amazing.
For this project, our firm introduced the opportunity to develop stormwater treatment for the existing nearby street that flowed into the park wetlands untreated. Our team saw the chance to improve water quality at the end of the street before it entered the wetlands surrounding the park. They determined that a gravel wetland could be installed in an existing wetland buffer. The city hadn’t been able to previously permit this area, but our firm worked with the city and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to get it approved.
For the bridges, the materials used were traditional concrete along with glulam, timber, and granite. The playground utilized natural tree trunks from the site, stacked cord wood and boulders.
City Center Park is the first step towards the South Burlington City Center Initiative. Since 1985, the leaders of South Burlington have been developing a comprehensive, centralized downtown area with parks, a city hall, a library, and a senior center. Along with a proposed Recreation Center further down Dorset Street, residents of South Burlington will see a lot of growth in the coming years!
Winner of the 2021 Vermont Public Places Merit Award.
One of the neighborhood meetings. An old footbridge over a Potash Brook tributary. Opening day!
