TSW and Associates | Redevelopment and Improvement of Piedmont Park

Piedmont Park

Granite bridge and pavilion across Lake Clara Meer, Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia.

TSW has been involved in Piedmont Park enhancements since 1993. While with another firm, TSW partner Tom Walsh led the Master Plan process, bringing together a wide variety of neighborhood organizations to create the only master plan ever to be implemented for the park. After Tom joined TSW in 1999, TSW was commissioned by the Piedmont Park Conservancy to provide services from design concept through implementation for several projects.

TSW built upon the community relationships already established during the master planning process by conducting three initial workshops. Neighborhood planning units and associations, and other interested stakeholders worked together to determine the goals and major design elements for the three park projects. TSW ensured adherence to the master plan guidelines, as well as a final plan that meets the needs of both local residents and the Atlanta community at large.

The Active Oval

The Active Oval is the contemporary name for what was originally the racetrack in Piedmont Park. The track was developed in the post Civil War period by a group of local prominent citizens. They formed the Piedmont Driving Club and utilized the property for recreational horse and buggy riding. The area know as the Active Oval today was graded as a 14+ acre level terrace from the rolling Piedmont terrain as part of the Piedmont Exposition of 1878. It was initially utilized for the exhibition halls and attractions for the short period that the Exposition was open. It was then converted to a horse racing and surrey racetrack that served the general public until the development of the Cotton States Exposition in 1895. During that period it served as a large formal garden. Following the Cotton States Exposition, it served a variety of open space uses for the public until the City passed the 1925 bond for the first and only significant phase of development based on the 1912 Olmsted Brother's Master Plan in the park until the City and the Piedmont Park Conservancy jointly undertook the implementation of the 1995 Master Plan.

The Active Oval served both structured and unstructured recreation open space. The structured use has been primarily softball for various groups in the City until a recent application of half of the space for two soccer fields. The area had originally been graded during the Cotton States Exposition to sheet drain to the edges and then be flumed over the banks. Later in the 20th century, a storm drainage system was installed by City staff that encircled the then four softball fields. This system was ineffective because the individual fields were not re-graded to flow to the inlets. As a result, the Active Oval became compacted and eroded. To compound the problem, the City struggled with funding for maintenance let alone improvements.

TSW was tasked with developing the program, budget and construction documents for rehabilitation. The work evaluated the environmental, historic, functional and aesthetic needs of the project with an advisory committee. The committee remained involved throughout the planning and design effort relative to scope and budget decisions. TSW managed the review of the plan through three adjacent neighborhoods as well as preparing and presenting the project to the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. TSW worked closely with the "At Risk" contractor throughout the process to maintain the quality and cost controls for the project. The scope of work included design of the site itself from a grading and drainage perspective, sports field design for soccer and softball, turf management, subsurface drainage, materials selection, custom detailing, and cost analysis. The Active Oval will be encircled by a one half-mile running track funded by the Atlanta Track Club. This is a 10-foot granular based trail with subsurface drainage and a synthetic 1" x 6" vertical edge on both ends. The base of the eastern slopes will receive a 200-foot long granite seat wall centered on the "grand stairs" from the 1895 Cotton States Exposition. The project is scheduled for completion in August of 2005 followed by a year to prepare develop the turf and opening to the public in the summer of 2006.

See these informational sheets for more:

Overview - Active Oval (PDF, 1.48 MB)
Active Oval - Aerials (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Front Lawn

Environmental sensitivity is carried through in the design and construction document process currently underway for The Front Lawn section of the park. The primary goals are to: enhance and protect the prime asset of existing mature hardwood trees by succession planting; remove little used paved pathways and replace with those located for optimal use and minimal aesthetic and environmental impact; and provide additional safety, security, and accessibility elements.

Lake Clara Meer

While varying priorities have been established for the three areas based on program of use, the themes of environmental and historical sensitivity pervade all design decisions. The rehabilitation of Lake Clara Meer, the first project to be completed, involved improving the water quality of the lake, planting native and littoral vegetation, and using semi-permeable Alabama shale and elevated wood platforms for the walking paths along the lake. The environmental theme is enforced with the inclusion in various hardscape elements of hand painted tiles of the area’s native plant materials. User access to the lake was enhanced by the upgrading of dock facilities, and the replacement of the causeway with an innovative sloping granite bridge and pavilion.

North Woods

Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates is developing a master plan for the Piedmont Park Conservancy and the City of Atlanta covering more than 50 acres of currently unusable and inaccessible land in and adjacent to Piedmont Park. A year-long representative and community based planning process directed the programming for the "North Woods" portion of the park, as well as two parcels managed by the City's Department of Watershed Management.

The plan incorporates thematic direction for the three segments: an active zone appealing to multiple ages in the primarily floodplain "West" property at the north end; an environmental education oriented zone on the eastern "Halpern" property; and a primarily passive recreational zone on the North Woods main segment that takes advantage of dramatic topography and natural woodland features. Included in this last zone are several bridges, overlooks, and water features of a grand scale to capture interest and draw activity to this area.

Key to the plan's success is the transformation of a lengthy concrete stormwater management culvert into a more natural stream environment and the creation of a pond and wetlands in a currently unappealing overflow detention area.

See this information sheet for more details and illustrations:

Overview - North Woods (PDF, 2.59 MB)

Oak Hill

Piedmont Park, first developed as the site of the Cotton States Exposition in 1895, has evolved into Atlanta's premier urban open space boasting over 4 million visitors a year. To combat years of maintenance neglect and the environmental impacts of its high use, The Piedmont Park Conservancy hired Paul Brickey to lead a multi-disciplined team in a $2.0 million effort to restore the Oak Hill zone, a 24-acre area located in the southwestern corner of the park which interfaces with the historic midtown neighborhood and is one of two gateways to the park from the Midtown business district

Key objectives of the project included:

conduct physical and cultural analysis to identify subspaces and environmental constraints
create a development program that reaffirms the value of the general circulation and spatial identity of the 1912 Olmsted Brothers Master Plan.

The Team's solution involved topographic restoration in the English Landscape style, over 1.25 miles of 10 foot wide asphalt and granite edged paths, many of which meet ADA recreational standards, a storm drainage system that will return surface runoff to Lake Clara Meer for the first time in 100 years, an irrigation system, an ADA overlook for special events, soil amendments, establishment of new sod and landscape plantings.

The project received an Atlanta Urban Design Commission Award of Excellence for Urban Design in 2000 and an Honor Award, American Society of Landscape Architects, South East Region Tri-State in 2001.

See this information sheet for more details and illustrations: