Alumni/MLA Adjunct Team Project Wins 2015 ASLA Honor Award

Fairview Environmental Park (formerly Genetta Park) has received a Design Honor Award from the Alabama Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

The park is located on the site of a former industrial site in the heart of historic West Montgomery. The four acre park is the first of its kind in the State of Alabama. Phase I included a constructed wetland designed to daylight Genetta Creek as well as capture and clean storm water originating in downtown Montgomery. Phase I was completed in the Spring of 2013 and downstream monitoring has already shown significant reductions of urban contaminants. Phase II was completed in November 2014 and includes an urban park surrounding the new constructed wetland. The park utilizes a wide range of green infrastructure features including permeable paving, storm water planters, a raingarden, and an innovative street tree planting system that prevents soil compaction and allows for the capture and retention of storm water runoff.

Although the catalyst for the project was cleaning urban storm water, another primary goal of the effort was to revitalize the neighborhood by establishing a gateway and community park. The area around the project is one of the most historic and culturally significant neighborhoods in the country due to its role in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. The design team included lead designers and landscape architects, LA+SOUTH, INC. (Thomas Doyle, MLA ’01, Principal) and Prime Consultant, 2D STUDIO, LLC (MLA Adjunct Instructor Judd Langham, Principal).  Other team members included Environmental Engineer, S&ME, INC; Civil Engineer, KREBS & LAT-32; structural engineer, Grant Engineering.  The project budget was $4 million.