Fw: Daily Plant: Concrete Plant Park Honored With Design Award

Volume XXVI, Number 5399   Tuesday, April 26, 2011   Concrete Plant Park Honored With Design Award     Concrete Plant Park;     Photo by Malcolm Pinckney   At an awards ceremony held on March 22 at the Federal Hall National Memorial, Parks received a 2010 "Designing the Parks" Merit Award in the Site Design category for the design of Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx. Concrete Plant Park, which opened in Fall 2009, was designed by Jim Mituzas, RLA, Senior Designer for the Bronx Capital Team along with an extensive design support team at Capital.   Designing the Parks is a public-private partnership consisting of eight diverse organizations committed to sustaining healthy, lively public parks as a core of civic life. Embodied in this vision is a framework for planning and designing public parks that are innovative, responsive, respectful, sustainable and inclusive. This structure is composed of six guiding principles which were developed through a dynamic interactive process, including reverence for place, engagement of all people, expansion beyond traditional boundaries, advancement of sustainability, informed decision making, and an integrated research, planning, design and review process. Members of Designing the Parks include the National Park Service, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, University of Virginia, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Institute at the Golden Gate, George Wright Society, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Val Alen Institute.   This year marks the inaugural year of the Designing the Parks awards program. In total, 69 entries were received, spanning 20 states and five countries. Of these entries, nine honor and eight merit awards were selected. These awards were given to projects that represent an outstanding design that exemplifies the Designing the Parks design principles.   A capstone project for the development of the Bronx River Greenway, Concrete Plant Park once housed a concrete batch mix plant located on the western bank of the industrial southern section of the Bronx River. In close partnership with community organizations and public agencies, the Parks Department and the Bronx River Alliance began the revitalization of this formerly abandoned site through reestablishing salt marshes on the riverbank once strewn with trash and tires, reintroducing the public to the site through organizing community festivals and leading hundreds of residents out on the Bronx river to canoe and kayak.   The following are some of the Jurors comments on Concrete Plant Park:   "This has a fantastic story... celebrating their past [rather than demolishing it] and making it whimsical by painting the buildings pink."   "The idea that the Bronx River would have a promenade is a fantastic recognition of this community. You feel this had to be an immense public movement to get made."   "... it looks natural and magical."   "Incredible to see what's happened in New York in the last 10 years�they are at the forefront of place-making in the country."   Congratulations to everyone on the design and construction team for receiving this honor!