By Lena Moriarty
Intern
Featuring gardens, a playground, river access and a performance space, the city of Wilmington recently released its final designs for the planned North Waterfront Park.
Located on the Cape Fear River near the north end of the city, the proposal was the top recommendation in the city’s Vision 2020 plan, with the project’s $20 million price tag coming from the parks bond city voters approved in 2016.
In 2013, Wilmington purchased a 6.6-acre section of land with intentions to build a park. Now, after extensive public feedback and City Council approval in 2017, the finalized designs of the park are now available to the public.
Taking into account public feedback, the city is including all top ten park elements the public deemed most important. These include a green space/lawn, a performance space, gardens, a water feature, a playground, a natural area, shade/trees, a festival space, river access and art. There are also sections allocated for a stage, a riverfront lawn, concessions, coastal marshes and more.
“This is a great opportunity to increase the quality of life for Wilmington and the entire Cape Fear area,” said one resident in the public engagement campaign used to tailor this park to those living in the area.
The North Waterfront Park also intends to stimulate economic development in the city of Wilmington by stimulating development in the surrounding areas. Located along the Cape Fear River, the park has access to the River Walk and is surrounded by land open for future developments.
Keeping the public informed and allowing them to voice their opinions throughout the course of this project was a top priority for the city of Wilmington. Through means of social media, stakeholder interviews, public attendance and public displays at recreational facilities, the city gathered community comments regarding the park and what they wanted it to look like.
“Make it something timeless, but creative. We have to find a cool way to draw people there, but not make it look weird or tacky,” another individual noted about the park.
Besides this establishment, downtown Wilmington has parks ranging from .10 to 1.5 acres that residents feel do not meet their recreational needs. With the creation of a large recreational space comes opportunity for growth as a city and community as Wilmington is expected to grow in population by 56,000 in the next 35 years.
Objectives of the North Waterfront Park include ensuring a safe, clean comfortable park for citizens and visitors while showcasing Wilmington’s history and identity as a port city. On top of this, the construction of this park hopes to host large community events such as concerts, festivals and celebrations.
Based off of parks in other major cities such as West Riverfront Park in Nashville, Tenn. and Waterfront Park in Charleston, S.C., North Waterfront Park aims to encapsulate different design elements from a variety of sources to create what designers, planners, city officials and the public think will work best for Wilmington.
The design overview will showcase an “outdoor rooms” strategy that allocates different sections of the park for different activities while not directly cutting any area off from another. Included in these outdoor rooms is The Wedge, intended for outdoor concert festival space and large crowds, and a variety of beer gardens to control areas where alcoholic beverages are allowed. For children, there is the Splash Plaza for hot summer days.
As for parking, lots will be designed with aesthetics in mind utilizing creative facades to hide the appearance of vehicles located adjacent to the park.
