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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2005

Contact: Elaine Makatura
(609) 292-2994

DEP Announces Design Competition Finalists
for New Urban State Parks in Paterson and Trenton

(05/135) TRENTON -- Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell today announced that eight teams of designers have been chosen to compete in a national design competition to create two new urban state parks - one in Trenton and one in Paterson.

"Urban parks must be designed to honor and celebrate both the past and the present," Commissioner Campbell said. "The vision and innovation of these finalists ensure that New Jersey's new parks will have both local enthusiasm and national stature."

Thirty-six design teams submitted their qualifications for the first stage of the juried competition. The Department of Treasury is responsible for requesting the bids, DEP will oversee the parks, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts is the competition manager, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology's School of Architecture is providing technical assistance. A jury of professional peers selected the finalists.

In Trenton, the design for the Capital Park System will reconnect New Jersey's capital city to the waterways it was built on, linking historic sites and existing parks that played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. The reclamation of Stacy Park will enhance the historic restoration of the State House Complex.

Teams chosen to compete for the winning Trenton design are:

  • Balmori Associates, New York
  • EDAW Inc., New York
  • MKW & Associates LLC, Rutherford, New Jersey
  • Sasaki Associates Inc., Watertown, Massachusetts
  • Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC, Philadelphia

The Paterson Park will focus on the natural beauty of the Great Falls and the city's Native American and industrial history. The 77-foot Great Falls is the second-largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River. Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, designated Paterson America's first planned industrial city in tribute to its extensive waterpower.

Teams chosen to compete for the winning Paterson design are:

  • EDAW Inc., New York
  • Field Operations, New York
  • Ralph Lerner Architect PC/Scape, Princeton, New Jersey/New York
  • Frederic Schwartz Architect, New York
  • Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC, Philadelphia

The next stage of the design competition will produce park designs for public viewing and comment in both cities in March 2006. Final designs will be submitted in May 2006.

"It is very satisfying to note that the competition has been successful in attracting some of the most creative and qualified designers in the United States," said Tom Moran of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. "The Trenton and Paterson Park sites have powerful historic treasures and ecological features that will challenge each of the selected finalist design teams as they begin their work."

Below is a listing of the jury participants for the first stage of the competition:

  • Ofelia Garcia, a professor of art who is dean of arts and communication at William Paterson University;
  • Lance Neckar, a landscape architect and urban designer, who is associate dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota;
  • Linda Pollak, an architect and urban landscape designer, who teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and practices in New York;
  • Robert Preston, a former president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, whose practice is located in Atlantic City;
  • Edward Uhlir, an architect who is design director for the Millennium Park Project in Chicago;
  • Sandy Wiggins, a developer and co-founder of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council.

The complete design programs for each park, maps, photographs and demographic details are available at www.nj.gov/dep/urbanparks.

 

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