Chattanooga’s oldest downtown park will get a new look this summer as the water fountains, paved areas and elevation changes in Miller Park are replaced with a bigger lawn, a larger stage and a new cafe pavilion built to better connect with Miller Plaza across the street.
Jenny Park, strategic capital planner for the city, told the Chattanooga Downtown Council of the Chamber of Commerce Thursday the redesign should help attract more visitors, workers and residents to the 39-year-old park and accommodate more entertainment, events and coffee shops in the area.
“This will make Miller Park a much more open and visible space, and people will be able to see what is going on and want to be there,” Park said. “It will also better connect the park to Miller Plaza and the other open spaces around it.”
The changes at Miller Park are due to begin this summer after final designs are complete and should be followed in the next couple of years with upgrades of both Miller Plaza and Patten Parkway in the central city. The new designs also will add more trees to both the parks and the medians of M.L. King Boulevard and Patten Parkway to make the area more pedestrian friendly.
The changes have been developed through public forums, workshops and interviews with hundreds of residents and workers over the past six months by a New Orleans design team: Spackman, Mossop, Michaels and Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. The $3 million design project was jointly funded by the city, Benwoood Foundation and the River City Co.
Drawing of proposed Miller Park District.Kim White, president of the downtown development agency River City Co., said open spaces and pedestrian friendly downtown areas are among the top reasons people want to live or shop downtown and improving Miller Park is key to helping the city develop its new Innovation District and the overall appeal of downtown.
There currently are more than 1,500 rental units being built or planned in downtown Chattanooga, and another 1,300 beds are being added downtown for UTC students, White said. The open spaces will provide a place for those who live or work downtown to also play downtown.
“Miller Park is in the heart of our city, but right now it’s a dead space too often,” she said. “Elevating these open spaces downtown will really help our city because great cities have great open spaces and a lot outside activity. That’s how people interact now.”
Park said the city has sought to make the open spaces more appealing and usable while keeping them “authentically Chatta- nooga.”
“I appreciate the desire to keep these areas authentic to our city,” said Mical Traynor, director of the Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute and a former president of the Downtown Council.
On Patten Parkway, designers are keeping an historic tree and World War II monument in the median, but changing the elevation of the parkway and its parking layout to be more friendly to pedestrians, bikes and events in the area.
The changes will create some challenges to keep vehicular traffic flowing and to provide enough of the events for the public spaces to remain active and energized.
“If you have this great space here – as well as what we have at the waterfront – they need to be animated and planned with events,” White said. “I think the city understands that is a key component to making these spaces work.”
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfree press.com or at 757-6340.