Akron plans to convert a decommissioned highway into a 35-acre park Across the country, U.S. cities are removing freeways in an effort to connect areas constricted by transportation planners decades ago. The city of Akron, Ohio, is the latest to reclaim its vehicular infrastructure for its citizens, and it?s doing it in a revolutionary way: For three months next summer, a decommissioned freeway will be transformed into a 35-acre park filled with trees.
The Innerbelt National Forest is the idea of Hunter Franks, a San Francisco-based artist who has been working in the Akron community since 2015. He plans to populate the freeway with potted plants, public seating, and programming meant to reconnect the two communities severed by the freeway 40 years ago. The project just received a Knight Cities Challenge grant, which is giving $15 million to projects in 26 American cities.
Hunter Franks
Before and after on Akron?s Innerbelt National Forest

The concept for the forest originated during a 500-person dinner on the freeway that Franks organized in in 2015, shortly after the road was closed. The guests at the community meal also participated in a visioning exercise where they were asked to write down what the neighborhood needed on butcher paper running down the middle of the tables. ?People said they wanted green space,? says Franks.
The Innerbelt Freeway, also known as State Route 59, was completed in 1970, and designed to bring economic revitali...