The Denver-based firm wants its projects to be useful to the public for decades When his firm was selected to redesign Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park in Tampa Bay, Florida, a small park off the Hillsborough River, Civitas cofounder Mark Johnson knew it was a project that required more than simply sprucing up an old public space.
Once the downtown epicenter of the historically African-American neighborhood of West Tampa, the site was bulldozed in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal, and the park was put in its place. Given the context, residents despised the park, and it fell into blight.
?The mayor of Tampa says, ?I have a disgruntled black neighborhood that hates this place and I want to make it right for them?what do we do"?? Johnson says. ?He doesn?t say, ?Give me a cool park.? He goes, ?What do we do"?? What Johnson did was conduct 40 one-on-one in-person interviews and five public meetings with residents of the area to learn the history of the neighborhood and what the park represented to the community. The new park opened in May 2018, and has tennis courts, basketball courts, football facilities, a splash pad, and a family-friendly picnic area. Some of its features came directly from Johnson?s community outreach, including access to boats on the water. And it?s been embraced by residents in a way the old park never was.
?The community rallied around the idea of giving the black community access and recreation on the water for free,? Johnson says. ?T...