Railroad Park

The Railroad Reservation Park (or Railroad Park) is a proposed downtown park to be located on the 14 acres between 14th and 18th Streets and between 1st Avenue South and Morris Avenue, along a four-block stretch of Birmingham's Railroad Reservation.

The 4-block Railroad Reservation Park is seen as a key segment in a linear urban greenway which could someday parallel the Railroad Reservation's entire length though downtown, alongside Sloss Furnaces, and extend outward to connect with other greenways through the entire region.

Within that system, the Railroad Reservation Park would become a more heavily-utilized urban node with active uses and programs as well as providing pedestrian links across the divide between the Financial Center on the north and UAB and Southside to the south.

History

Friends of the Railroad District

The Friends of the Railroad District (FoRRd) was formed in October 2001 to bring together community leaders for the purpose of promoting the creation of green space along the railroad corridor and to raise funds for the eventual development of a park. The non-profit FoRRd's Board of Directors was first led by Bob Greene and Susan Lipscomb Sutton and included Elizabeth Barbaree-Tasker, Brooke Tanner Battle, Richard Carnaggio, Doug Hale, Barr Linton, Dean Nix, David Pearson, and Cynthia Schreiber.

Drawing on discussions with the group city leaders expressed their own visions for a new downtown park. Mayor Bernard Kincaid presented the idea to a group of mayors, planners and design experts at the Mayor's Institute for City Design. In December 2001 the concept for the park was presented by FoRRd to the Urban Land Institute, which was assisting the city with the City Center Master Plan Report. The park and system of greenways became one of four integral components of that report.

During the summer of 2002 FoRRd presented their concept of a linear park to numerous business, civic and neighborhood groups. Research firm Marketry donated its services to conduct focus groups to target specific stakeholder groups and generate consensus on desires, needs and concerns regarding a downtown park. The group commissioned photographer Matthew Collier to document the downtown railroad district for archival and promotional purposes. Early plans to stage a design competition for the park were set aside to concentrate on developing a vision in tandem with the ongoing City Center Master Plan process.

Conceptual design

In ____ the City of Birmingham contracted with Tom Leader Studio, a Boston landscape design firm, to generate conceptual plans for the park site. At the same time, ConsultEcon, another Boston firm, was hired to perform market studies and economic impact projections.

External links

• [Friends of the Railroad District website