ATHOL — The community meetings are done and now the design team from The Conway School’s Sustainable Landscape Planning and Design program will be reviewing their recommendations for the Silver Lake Park Master Plan project to present to Director of Planning and Community Development Eric Smith by June 12.
The design research done by graduate students Bo Carpen and Robbe Verhofste began in April at a kick-off meeting with stakeholders to set it in motion. The $7,200 project was approved by voters at a town meeting last October.
One design concept, “Urban Refuge,” accentuates the lake’s natural value and the park’s unique ecosystem and ecological history by creating an outdoor natural educational play scape with a walking trail. A portion of the design removes the 120-foot fenced in concrete slab at the northeastern end of the park, re-vegetates the area and is used as an outdoor learning space with a birdwatching station. The design philosophy shifts the identity of the park with the goal of “making the natural beauty of this unique urban kettle pond the park’s driving program.”
Stairs sited along existing unofficial walking paths, including one to Lincoln Park, enhance pedestrian access to the park. Floating bio-islands to attract wildlife and kayaking access are also part of the design.
Other ideas include a dock to make it easier to maintain swimming access, a re-vegetated shoreline to block geese, and an area near the beach designated for outdoor exercise equipment and volleyball nets.
To address the haphazard parking and pedestrian main entrance and to control erosion issues, natural fiber logs and vegetated bump outs with low growing shrubs to slow traffic are placed along both sides of the stairs near the playing fields. Across from the pavilion, an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible ramp with an integrated staircase leads to the ball fields. The sandy parking area near the pavilion becomes a permeable path with shrub and vegetation barriers and a geology-based play area next to the lake. The road is converted to a 10-foot pedestrian path starting near the concrete slab.
“Eventful Park,” the second design concept, attracts a wider crowd and caters to events such as concerts and sports tournaments. The design is “focused on siting new features that attract a greater diversity of community members in both age and interests, and improving existing spaces.” Included in the design is a beach concert stage with more organized parking and added trees for shade.
The “main entrance experience” would be more orderly based on “traffic calming techniques” with a narrowed road to prevent scattered parking and a pedestrian path separated from the road.
The redesign reduces the road and parking area from a 95-foot stretch to 60 feet “while still including the double front-loading parking (100 spaces)” and two 10-foot driving lanes. The reorganized parking would also open the pavilion space for new uses such as a paddle boat rental, stone fishing piers, grassy areas near the pavilion for lawn games and an increased buffer to divert geese. A rain garden bump out that breaks up the parking lot, a crosswalk, bleacher seating at the ball park with a winding ADA ramp to the fields, and trees added along the sidelines to create shade are also a part of the design.
The opening near the concrete slab is reduced to improve sense of security and kept for multi-purpose sports with a solar snack bar on the western side, and the peninsula is re-vegetated for a picnic area.
Beach shore access is reduced, lessening maintenance needs with the addition of a vegetative barrier along the lake that would remove geese sight lines. An ADA path is added to the beach where the back half is terraced into a natural amphitheater made of logs and boulders for summer concerts, a natural play scape for children.
Additional features and improvements are included in both design concepts. Although the students are nearing the end of their project, they will accept input on park ideas and how to prioritize the circulation issue at SilverLake2019@csld.edu through Friday, June 7.