Cleveland, Ohio
with McKnight & Associates

Siteworks was initially hired to design and develop ideas for one area of the park being altered by new traffic engineering. A series of important questions and opportunities emerged from this study that led to the expansion of the project scope to include strategic planning efforts throughout the park. This effort materialized as a series of strategically focused demonstration projects throughout the Doan Brook Watershed that will create a catalyst for improvements to the ecology of the area, the health of the watershed, and the reconnection of diverse neighborhoods to the park and each other. Siteworks worked collaboratively with a diverse team of local designers, planners, engineers, and representatives from public agencies, important private foundations, neighborhood groups, and local universities to develop and communicate the ideas and intentions of the project and to create an active and effective means of communication and feedback.

This planning effort introduces a layered system of design strategies that simultaneously address issues of regenerating ecological functionality, sustaining cultural health and re-establishing community vibrancy. Building upon a long history of unrealized analytical masterplans, the design strategies explored in this project were developed in a fashion aimed at incremental implementation over time. The key strategies employed in this project include: New Green Infrastructure Projects that reconnect neighborhoods to the Park through efforts focused on best practices for stormwater and watershed management; Creative approaches to implementing stream restoration within an historic park; Development of contemporary material palettes and applications that build from the local conditions and traditions; Comprehensive consideration of the ecology, topography and hydrology of the park as both a civic and natural landscape; and Approaches to new patterns of circulation and programming that link diverse uses and areas of the park and the city.

2009 National ASLA Honor Award for Planning and Analysis

Presented as an educational session at The ASLA Convention in Chicago 2009