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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