Design Team Named for Downtown Park

Centre City Development Corp. board members Friday unanimously selected a team of architects and artists to design a park that will stretch from 5th Avenue to Columbia Street, along the Santa Fe Railroad tracks.

The winning design team, led by architect Peter Walker of San Francisco, was chosen because its concept of the linear park used landscaping, colored gravel and fountains to tie in the convention center to the south with proposed housing immediately north of the train tracks, said Max Schmidt, the CCDC’s assistant vice president for planning and engineering.

“It’s not a passive, picnic, unorganized-sports kind of park,” Schmidt said. “What we’re trying to do with this land is create a sculptured form with park-like qualities.”

Part of the design calls for railroad cars and the San Diego Trolley to pass over a large, circular fountain. A bike path and a jogging trail will run the length of the 3,000-foot park, Schmidt said.

The park will cost $14.5 million for land acquisition and development, which should be complete in 1989 or 1990, said a CCDC spokeswoman. Most of the land will be acquired from the railroad, she said.