Located in the economically depressed College Hill neighborhood of North St. Louis, Peace Park consists of multiple adjacent lots that sit along the eastern edge of a major roundabout which hosts one of the city’s most recognized landmarks at its center, the Grand Avenue Water Tower – the oldest water tower in the city. The overgrown site had been informally used as a community orchard, gardens, gathering point and donation site, stewarded and maintained by Otis Woodard, long-time resident and activist who passed away in 2015.

At the outset of the project, a broad coalition of community stakeholders, nonprofits, and local institutions was formed to tackle the development of a vision for the site. Working together to enact an extensive community engagement program, this collaborative group included 4 Municipal Departments, 4 regional or local non profits, and a cohort of faculty from a local university. This group began engagement by recruiting a community advisory board comprising area residents. Arbolope joined the coalition as Landscape Architect and was tasked with translating the results of that initial community engagement into a conceptual design for the new park.

Utilizing the advisory board’s input, along with input from other coalition members, we determined that the goal for this project was to design a park that would activate the disused space, embrace both the community’s and Woodard’s original vision, and anticipate the neighborhood’s future economic revitalization in thoughtful and equitable ways that increased accessibility while preserving beloved site features.

The comprehensive list of objectives for the Peace Park design include:

Create an inclusive and welcoming College Hill community anchor. Honor site’s history and incorporate beloved site elementsCreate visual and physical connections to neighborhood anchors. Develop a design that anticipates future growth and connections. Create a high impact landscape with feasible and realistic implementation. Meaningfully incorporate community feedback. Create a low maintenance, sustainable, multi-seasonal, multi-functional, and resilient landscape. Incorporate existing site features. Create a bold and clear landscape design. Leverage project partnerships and connection resources to create a special neighborhood anchor.

The resulting vision for Peace Park focuses on three flexible Activity Zones designed to accommodate a variety of community-driven functions: Gather & Entertain, Eat & Share, and Play & Relax.

The Gather & Entertain design elements focus on community events and include a new Entry Plaza Pavilion at Grand Avenue and Strodtman Place welcoming visitors with a bus shelter, bike parking, an informational kiosk, and wayfinding. This entry leads to two gathering areas connected by Terraced Seating walls: the top terrace is a Plaza built around existing orchard trees, and the bottom terrace is a multipurpose Plaza that extends from the sidewalk for pop-up markets, food trucks, events tents and more. Both of these spaces extend south to the central gathering area & Entertainment Stage in the heart of the park used for presentations, events, concerts, and festivals.

The Eat & Share design elements focus on gathering. In the Dining Grove there are a series of dining tables and grills under preserved ball cypress trees, river birches and oaks. Also, along a weaving pathway throughout the park, the existing Orchard has been expanded to include a more diverse variety of fruiting trees.

The Play & Relax areas include a Children’s Playscape and a variety of open-ended activity and seating opportunities, all of which feature climate-ready design and the use of natural elements, including pollinator habitats and a Rain Garden.