How can we design public spaces that also manage and conserve natural resources?

Historic Fourth Ward Park

Phase 1: HDR

Phase 2: Wood+Partners

2009-2012

Atlanta, GA

Historic Fourth Ward Park, a 17-acre model of sustainable urban planning, offers stormwater management and a recreational green space.

Built on a site that previously flooded often, polluting a nearby river, the urban park features a retention pond for water management, native plant landscaping, and solar panels for energy.

Designed with community input, the greenspace includes playgrounds, a large lawn for events, splash pad play areas, playgrounds, strolling paths, historical artifacts, public art, an outdoor theater, and Atlanta's first skateboard park.

It is also adjacent to the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile urban corridor connecting 45 neighborhoods. The park has stimulated redevelopment and inspired reinvestment in the surrounding community.

WEBSITE
Historic Fourth Ward Park: www.h4wpc.org
VIDEOS
ATLSherpa, “Quick Tour of Historic Fourth Ward Park,” 2016.
Take a video tour of the Historic Fourth Ward Park.
Ryan Gravel, “Building the City We Want to Live In,” TedXAtlanta, 2010.
Ryan Gravel — who conceived the idea of the Atlanta BeltLine —explains how the solutions that are bringing the BeltLine into reality have their foundation in the neighborhood support the idea first garnered.
Bloomberg CityLab, “The Simple Ambition of Atlanta’s BeltLine Project,” 2017.
An inside look at the construction of Atlanta's BeltLine, a 22-mile pedestrian-friendly corridor circling downtown and eventually connecting 45 neighborhoods with each other.
BOOKS
Ryan Gravel, Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities, St. Martin’s Press, 2016.
Cities have the capacity to create a healthier, more satisfying way of life by remodeling and augmenting their infrastructure in ways that connect neighborhoods and communities. Gravel came up with a way to do just that in his hometown with the Atlanta Beltline project.
Mark Pendergrast, Cities on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future. Basic Books, 2017.
An inspiring narrative of ordinary Americans taking charge of their local communities, City of the Verge provides a model for how cities across the country can reinvent themselves.