Atwater Park Terrace Design

Atwater Park is one of Springfield’s most scenic neighborhoods, known for its beautiful parkways and residences.  When the Atwater Park neighborhood association asked the City to develop a small garden at one of its public terraces, they came to GZA and its team of landscape architects for professional design services. 

Challenge

The City had limited funding for the site improvement project and had to reach out for donations. The site was small and contained many large trees that needed to be protected in the site design.
 

Solution

GZA developed perspective visualizations of the proposed design, with input from the neighborhood committee, which were used for project fundraising. Upon receipt of funding from the local Community Preservation Act fund and donations from abutters, the City of Springfield contracted GZA to provide landscape architectural services for the development of a garden-like public patio with a decorative water fountain as its focal point. To assist the City in realizing this new public garden space, GZA advanced the conceptual design to full construction documents. The project involved coordination with the fountain manufacturer and coordination and review with Springfield Water and Sewer Commission, the City’s Forester, and the Department of Public Works.  GZA provided construction phase design services, and together with the Contractor and City staff, ensured that the project was completed on time and within budget.
 

Benefit

The City and its Atwater Park neighborhood community have benefited from a new public green space and have demonstrated that they were able to stretch grant funding dollars with local fundraising from project abutters/proponents.