Aerial view of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Credit: Fort Monroe National Park Foundation, Inc.

The Proclamation will ensure preservation of the majority of the buildings within the 570-acre National Historic Landmark District as well as significant landscapes and viewsheds. But only 324 acres, or 57 percent of the 570 acres, was designated a National Monument, leaving the rest of the property to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ideally the entire 570-acre property would best be served as protected parkland.

We’ve written before about the deficit of parkland in the Hampton Roads area and how a new, historic park would have a significant positive impact for the entire region. The opportunity to gain priceless acres of waterfront parkland is especially noteworthy. The National Monument designation includes federal ownership of the parade ground, some buildings, and the beaches, with easements surrounding the entire fortress and moat.

The site has the momentous distinction of being the spot upon which, in 1619, the first Africans destined for the British continental North American colonies landed—the vanguard of an estimated 10–12 million Africans forcibly brought to the colonies and, later, the United States.

Fort Monroe was begun in 1819 and completed in 1834. With a seven-sided shape, walls of stone, ramparts over a mile in circumference, completely surrounded by a water-filled moat, and bristling with huge artillery guns, Fort Monroe was given the nickname “Gibraltar of the Chesapeake.” It is the largest fort ever built in the United States.

Map showing the proposed park/monument area of Fort Monroe. Credit: National Park Service.

During the American Civil War, Fort Monroe was one of only a very few strongholds in the South that never fell to the Confederates. Among notable military events that occurred at Fort Monroe was Major General Benjamin Butler’s decision to declare that any slave escaping to Fort Monroe would not be returned but would be kept as “contraband of war.” As word of the novel legal decision spread, thousands of slaves found their way to Fort Monroe, which soon became known as “Freedom’s Fortress.” By the end of the war, thousands of “contraband” were living around the fort. The spot of the first landing of slaves became, after more than 200 years, the spot of their first emancipation.

Fort Monroe continued as an active military base through World Wars I and II. In 1960, the entire post, both inside and outside the moat, was designated a national historic landmark because of its rich military and cultural significance. In 2005, under the Base Realignment and Closure Act, Fort Monroe was ruled surplus by the army and deactivated on September 15, 2011. Although it is no longer an active Army base, the land is still owned by the Army and therefore under federal control. Much of the rest of the base is scheduled to revert to state ownership in January, under control of the Fort Monroe Authority.

Used by 14 presidents since 1906, the Antiquities Act has protected some of the most unique natural and historic features in America, including other urban national properties like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The main difference between a National Monument and a National Park is the way it obtains its status. The President has the authority to declare a National Monument while Congress declares a National Park. Regardless of designation, it will operate like any other unit within the National Park system. There are currently 21 national park units located in Virginia; Fort Monroe will be the 22nd and the 396th nationwide.

For more information on the deficit of parkland in the Hampton Roads region, read our 2008 report Bracing for Change.

August’s Frontline Parks are examples of industrial sites that have been reclaimed and restored as urban green space.

Stuart Park Bayou, Houston.

Five miles from the Houston Ship Channel, home of the second largest petrochemical complex in the world, a 27-acre remnant of the southeast Texas bayou system is being regenerated.  The source of this emerging life is Robert C. Stuart Park, soon to be an environmental education center and source of respite for nearby neighbors and factory workers. The Houston Parks Board (HPB), whose mission is to create, improve, protect and advocate for parks in the Greater Houston region, initially identified the site during a city-wide evaluation of possible parkland in 2005. Although not listed for sale, HPB contacted the property owners, and after four years secured the site at less than 50% of its market value. By partnering with the Houston Parks Board, the City of Houston obtained grant funding for most of the park improvement.  At Stuart Park, visitors will be invited to embrace and appreciate the historic bayou habitat – to wander trails, cross boardwalks over wetland streams, and watch prairie grasses wave in the breeze.  It will also be a place to learn about nature, with a learning pavilion, teaching stations, interpretive signage and a demonstration garden.

Concrete Plant Park, New York.

A signature project on the Bronx River Greenway, Concrete Plant Park provides a vital link and highlights a unique partnership between public agencies and communities to reclaim the waterfront for public use.   The seven acre park is sited on a former concrete plant, which was in operation from 1945 to 1987. After the plant closed in the 1980s and the city seized the property, the area was saved from the auction block by community residents, led by Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice. These efforts were supported by The Point Community Development Corporation, Community Boards, elected officials, and the newly formed Bronx River Alliance who saw the site’s potential as a waterfront park.  During the design phase, residents articulated a vision for quiet contemplation, learning, unstructured play and a sense of the history of the site. Today, the park boasts the stabilized remnants of the concrete plant, acres of open lawn, winding paths, benches, shaded areas and game tables.  On summer afternoons you can watch a pick-up game of cricket and soccer, paddlers out in canoes and kayaks, or fishers casting their lines into the river.  Concrete Plant Park is the result of a decade of tireless efforts, as well as an indicator of what is to come as new links on the Bronx River Greenway open to the public.

Frontline Parks is generously supported by DuMor, Inc. and PlayCore.

What does a daffy have in common with a downward dog?

Both are moves you might see in this month’s featured parks, because parks can be as varied as the people who use them.  One may be designed to support a single activity, such as skateboarding.  Other parks are planned to support a wide assortment of uses, such as walking or running, children’s play, competitive sports, natural resource protection, or beautiful landscapes.  Programs can be as varied as a park allows, promoting mind-body exercises, cultural performances, or water-based fun.  Whether a park promotes a wide range of activities or a single use, it is but a single piece of a larger, complex parks system.  Parks and open spaces must be envisioned as whole systems, not only to best meet diverse recreational goals, but to also best deliver the wide range of associated parks’ benefits, such as health, economic development, and community-building.

June’s  featured parks demonstrate diversity in uses, and both are prime examples of parks as civic spaces, bringing people together to connect around common experiences.

Houston Skyline.

You might see a daffy performed at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark in Houston, Texas.  In response to an important need for an often under-served age group, a group of skaters formed PUSH (Public Use Skateparks for Houston) to advocate for a safe, well-designed skate park.  In response, the Houston Parks Board, a non-profit parks partner, raised the funds and built a state-of- the- art skatepark along Buffalo Bayou and the edge of downtown, an area already used by skateboarders.  Opened in 2008, the 30,000 square foot facility is owned and operated by the City of Houston.  The park is free, open late year-round, hosts classes and exhibitions, and has become an extreme sports destination.  Site furnishings were manufactured by DuMor, Inc.

Fourth of July Celebration.

Though best known for its Fourth of July Boston Pops concert and fireworks, the Charles River Esplanade performs a wide-variety of public service the other 364 days a year, as well.  The park began with a seawall and landfill in the late 19th century and has become the crown jewel of Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace.  The conversion from polluted mudflats to linear park continued decade by decade.  Today, this riverside gem provides waterfront activities such as boating and fishing, as well as land-based trails for running, walking, and bicycling.  Programs are diverse, too, and provide yoga lovers and baseball players alike room to practice their favorite activities.  This three-mile stretch of greenspace encourages people from all walks of life to share in its natural beauty.

Frontline Parks is generously supported by DuMor, Inc.  and  PlayCore.

The untouched Santa Monica Mountains behind the famous H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D sign were saved in 2010 by a very public and successful Trust for Public Land campaign to prevent development on the 138 acres behind and beside the “H.”  Cahuenga Peak has been added to 4,100-acre Griffith Park.

The awards also recognized New York City as the “Greenest City,” particularly due to its ambitious master plan, called PlaNYC.

Named by the NDRC as a Smarter City for Transportation in 2011 and a Smarter City for Energy in 2010, New York City is following a plan, released by Mayor Bloomberg on Earth Day 2007, to reduce its carbon footprint – and its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% – and improve its environs by 2030. PlaNYC encompasses improvements in land, water, transportation, energy, air and climate change impacts. Notable accomplishments in the last year include making Times Square into a pedestrian-friendly causeway, planting thousands of trees and fighting to get hybrid taxis on the streets.  

Though perhaps overshadowed by PlaNYC, New York also recently released Vision 2020, a comprehensive plan to reshape its substantial waterfront. It may come as a surprise to many that New York’s waterfront, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the sixth borough, is larger than that of Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Portland combined. Recognizing that the task of reshaping 520 miles of shoreline may seem incomprehensibly large, New York’s planning department also released the Waterfront Action Agenda, which outlines 130 specific projects to be started in the next three years.

That report was preceded by a manual produced by the Design Trust for Public Space called “High Performance Landscape Guidelines: 21st Century Parks for NYC.” It contains best practices for park design and plant selection, guidelines for implementing the goals of PlaNYC, and suggestions on how parks can better promote cycling and walking.

Both of these high-profile cities, though in opposite corners of the country, share a commitment to improving livability through the development, protection, and rejuvenation of parks. We offer our congratulations for their newest green credentials.

March’s selections celebrate historic design and new innovations.

Olmsted Park, Brookline, Mass. Credit: Brookline Parks and Open Space Division.

Depending upon where you live in the United States, the culture of parks and open space can vary according to when the system was established and who planned it. It is not unusual to hear envy for those parks and systems designed by Frederick Law Olmsted or Daniel Burnham. Indeed, many of these parks were constructed before the cities that now surround them, shaping urban form in profound ways. Similarly, it is not unusual to hear the stewards of those legendary parks and systems struggle with how to make those spaces relevant for contemporary users. New parks have an advantage in embracing the most current engineering and technologies from the outset, rather than a retrofit. This month’s featured parks demonstrate how both old and new parks achieve relevance in cities today.

Olmsted Park in Brookline, Massachusetts began construction in 1890. As a gem in Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace in Boston, the namesake park includes three ponds and a meandering stream that were, at that time, engineered solutions to the problematic Muddy River. Olmsted linked the man-made improvements with natural formations, creating a scenic ribbon of groves, lawns, and water features. Thanks to the hard work of the Brookline Parks and Open Space division and its four partners, the historic landscape has been restored with new plantings, better views, and easier access. Click here to read more.

Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail, Oxon Hill, Md. Credit: Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Nearly 120 years later, the Potomac River Waterfront Park in Oxon Hill, Maryland opened in 2009. The site along the Potomac River features a landscaped superstructure – a deck over I-95 that links trail systems in Maryland and Virginia via a connection to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River. It also features a unique solution to moving trail users from the ground to the deck by means of a helix of “foamed concrete.” In addition to the trail opportunities, the park features a panoramic view of Washington, D.C. and its environs. As you can imagine, this kind of project includes many local, state, and federal partners committed to creating 21st century park solutions. Read more.

Frontline Parks is generously supported by DuMor, Inc. and PlayCore.

For years I’ve been hearing bits and pieces about the massive, multi-billion-dollar project to fix Dallas. No, not everything about Dallas, just one of its biggest challenges – creating parkland along its river, the Trinity.

This is the story that came out, in fits and starts, in that riveting ASLA workshop, told by landscape architect Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, engineer James Parrish, park official Willis Winters and park advocate Gail Thomas. Each focused a bit tightly on his or her specific issue, but ultimately, prodded by some audience questions, the full story in its complexity came through.

Dallas’ problem is a doozy and its solution is a double-doozy, although whether it’s sustainable is another question.

Trinity Lakes Vision Plan

The challenge of the Trinity River, like other desert waterways, is that it fluctuates wildly from the usual trickle to the occasional roaring deluge. Building the surrounding city to respect the deluges means pulling the buildings and streets hundreds or thousands of yards back from the regular river channel, leaving a wide swath of deadening nothingness. Conversely, building the surrounding city right up against the normal trickle means courting periodic catastrophic floods.

Dallas, with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has split the difference, building quite a distance away from the river (but not really far enough for true flood safety) then adding high levees to protect against the worst of the crests. This leaves a wide stony area alongside the river, relegated historically to an out-of-sight, out-of-mind status by the high levees.

If Dallas were an eastern or northern city, the Trinity would have a broad greenspace alongside it, as Washington, D.C. has alongside the Potomac or Minneapolis by the Mississippi. But there’s not enough rain in Dallas, and irrigation for a big park would be way too expensive. However, there is one source of water for a Trinity River Park — the sinks, bathtubs and toilets of the 1.2 million residents of Dallas. Turns out that the city’s wastewater treatment plant produces about 50 million gallons of relatively clean water per day. That regular flow enters the Trinity, day in and day out, but it does so downstream from downtown. That’s enough water not only to irrigate a park but to actually create a brand new lake in the normally dry gulch, as well.

A big part of the story is political — how a controversial multi-billion-dollar project got through the political process, beginning as a highway program and gradually morphing into something ecological and place-making over the decades. Other big issues involve engineering — how to design a lake that doesn’t stagnate and eutrophy between floods; and also how to make a park inviting to users without breaching the high concrete levees that surround it. The answers are complex (one seems to involve tilting the lake’s bottom so that it flows upstream), and I’m heading to Dallas in November for the 21st Century City Conference to try and understand them better.

But one big question — the 50-million-gallon question — didn’t come up. The cleaned wastewater, upon which rests this whole perpetual motion machine, will need to be pumped uphill about three or four miles.

I’ll be the first to admit that many if not most urban parks aren’t traditionally sustainable. I’m sure that if the power were shut off in Chicago’s Millennium Park or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park or Houston’s Buffalo Bayou all kinds of things would go haywire. But I also know that one of the most basic rules of infrastructure is that water flows downhill.

Interestingly, 1,000 miles west of Dallas, Phoenix has a similar problem but deals with it differently. There, so much water is taken out of the Salt River that it actually dries up above the city and there is nothing but a wide empty gully through town. Then, downstream it reappears, thanks to the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Phoenix hasn’t tried to create a lake in the city, but it has used the sewer outflow in a network of manmade wetlands to attract wildlife.

Phoenix started with one big physical advantage over Dallas — the city’s downtown wasn’t built near the Salt River and has no real connection to the waterway. Now it has two: its river-and-park solution comes a lot closer to sustainability.

The only way Dallas’ new Trinity River Park will ever be sustainable is if the power used to pump its life-giving water is generated renewably, using solar or wind. This is another reason for park advocates and clean energy advocates to work side-by-side together.

Credit: Municipality of San Juan

 San Juan, Puerto Rico recently released a new plan to make the city more liveable and walkable. Titled The Walkable City, the plan calls for a redesign of the Isleta district, an island which is home to Old San Juan, the oldest planned city in the Americas. Isleta is separated from mainland Puerto Rico by a series of bridges and a ferry.  

The plan focuses on 10 strategic actions. Most significant is the introduction of the “Tren Satour”, a 5.3 mile light rail system to connect the historic center with the mainland. An integrated public transit system would also include buses and shuttles, water taxis, commuter ferries, and extensive park and ride facilities on the mainland. Other interesting features of the plan include mixed-use development, a waterfront loop for pedestrians, cyclists and joggers, and creating green corridors to connect the north and south waterfronts.  

The idea of including better public transportation options and connectivity to parks in urban design plans is nothing new. Many U.S. cities, including Houston, St. Louis, and Phoenix have recently been adding light rail or bus stops in parks as part of redevelopment plans. San Juan’s The Walkable City uses many U.S. as well as international cities as example success stories. View the full plan here.

A rendering shows the River Seine expressway converted to human public space.

The Mayor of Paris announced recently that the city is closing an expressway along the River Seine in a project that could have a major impact on public space in the city. Time magazine describes the current one-day-a-week closure and how this may spread to 365 days per year:

On a recent Sunday in Paris, stroller-pushing parents, rollerbladers and cyclists eased their way up and down an unusually tranquil stretch of the Seine’s left bank. Normally this road is filled with thousands of cars zipping along, but once a week it is transformed into an oasis of calm as part of an experiment by City Hall to see what happens when cars are banned from Paris’ riverbanks. So far the experiment, which has been going on for the past few years, is proving popular. Delphine Damourette, 31, a Montmarte resident whose cobblestoned neighborhood is a rollerblader’s hell, says the traffic-free Sundays give her a taste of her city as she most loves it — during summer vacation, when Paris slows down, cars disappear, and pedestrians reclaim the Seine. “It would be great if Paris were like this all year long,” she says. Soon, she may get her wish.

The banks of the River Seine are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, yet they are occupied by a motorway. Under the new plan, one side of the river would be converted exclusively to park-like space, while the other side would be converted to a parkway, leaving some space for auto movement.

Most likely, this premiere space within Paris will be popular with pedestrians all week just as it has been popular on the one-day per week closures. Critics argue that this will choke traffic and prevent a more egalitarian transportation system (i.e. in Paris, the poor largely live on the outskirts of the city and this would prevent them from having access, so the argument goes). This fails to acknowledge that visiting the renewed banks would not involve the expensive purchase of a private motor car, and that an existing and improved mass transport system can provide easier and cheaper access to the city.

In any case, if this experiment is a success in tightly packed and street-space poor Paris, then it seems more feasible for less traffic-jammed U.S. cities. It already has happened in a few places — the most well known being Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park and a removed freeway in Milwaukee. There are tons of prospects to at least consider — from the central stretch of Civic Center Drive in Columbus, Ohio to the 10th Street Bypass in Pittsburgh along the Monongahela Riverfront (once proposed to be shut down by Mayor Tom Murphy) to the Potomac Parkway in Washington, D.C. and more. (The Congress for the New Urbanism has a list of “freeways without futures.”)

Such moves could make our cities healthier all around — through less air pollution and energy usage, increased pedestrian and bike safety, more places for physical activity and social enjoyment — which all leads to a greater gross urban happiness.