Park Transformation Creates Sense of Discovery

The park has undergone several iterations since its opening in 1899, but over the decades had fallen into disrepair. The park grounds and community center were aging and underused, and the ice rink no longer operational. That all changed in November 2019 when the community celebrated Howard Park’s transformation. Alliance Architects was selected to design the 13-acre park. Alliance Architects’ Bill Lamie, AIA, the principal leading the project, tapped Landscape Architect Kevin Clark, from The Lakota Group, to collaborate on the park design.

“The master plan was to bring back ice skating to the park in a new way,” says Lamie. “Instead of a large ice rink, we designed an interesting ice trail that contains the playground area. People enter the playground under the bridge that features rotating, colored lights. The forms, colors and landscaping that buffer the ice trail and playground become sculptural elements that blend together.”

The St. Joseph River informed the designers’ concept for the landscape architecture, which built on the idea of a flowing river. “The landscape has movement with grade changes and winding trails. The blue and green palette and stone buildings and outcroppings create an organic feel,” says Clark.

The design of the Landscape Forms lighting and site furnishings reinforced the organic, sculptural characteristics of the park’s buildings, hardscape and greenscape. The park is on track to become the area’s first LEED v4-certified public park and incorporates ecological design and material choices throughout.

FGP area lights and Torres area, wall-mounted and catenary lights were chosen for their contemporary aesthetic, which Clark describes as “timeless and interesting.” The FGP area lights are located along the perimeter of the park, pathways and ice trail. The family of Torres fixtures aesthetically connect elements from taller area lights around the ice pond to smaller scale, wall-mounted fixtures on the community center and other buildings.

The plaza area features Escofet’s Twig and Lungo Mare benches, FGP benches and Stop Bollards. “Visitors comment on the sculptural nature of Lungo Mare seating and Twig benches,” says Lamie. They reinforce and complement the consistency of Howard Park’s design. All of the elements work well together and that’s the strength of the final result.”