When the Town of McAdenville received a Community Development Block Grant to help revitalize their Main Street downtown in 2010, a key component of the grant work was the creation of a new park on Elm Street. The Town hired Landworks for design through construction administration.

Working within a limited budget, Landworks worked with the Town’s stakeholder committee to develop the program for the park that would allow it to serve multiple functions. The park would provide much-needed active recreation space for children, as well as assembly and event space for activities related to McAdenville’s Christmas light display.

The Town’s Christmas activities created a scheduling challenge – design and construction could take all the time in the world, as long as the park was complete by the end of November 2011.

Understanding that the Town’s ultimate needs would outstrip their budget, Landworks developed the plan for the park in a way that would allow for phased construction over time.

The master plan located a performance stage at the low end of the site to take advantage of the natural topography by providing terraced seating opportunities throughout the park. The design team also reinforced the park’s context in a mill town through materials choices, such as the use of brick colors to match the historic downtown. The team also incorporated granite blocks from the original mill race into the terraces, to help tie the park to the town’s heritage for future generations. The master plan also proposed structural soil bridging to protect an existing American Elm – another opportunity to help make the park special for the town.

The project came in on time and under budget, and it served as the hub of activity for the 2011 Christmas Light season.