Architecture: Cherry Street Park

For this project, I worked with Christina Cardendas. We planned a renovation of Cherry Street Park in Grand Rapids. It’s a fairly small park and whenever I pass by, it’s empty, except for people occasionally playing tennis or basketball. There’s a tall, chain-link fence around the whole park, which makes it feel less-than welcoming, and the fence hasn’t been maintained very well – there are spots where trees are leaning on it. There’s also a building in the park, which seems to have been built as a house, but is currently being used by the East Hills Neighborhood Association. At the back of this building, facing most of the park, there are public bathrooms, but they’ve been locked whenever I’ve visited. Overall, the park feels neglected.

We started sketching, considering playgroung equipment, possible bathrooms and cafe, green space, and sports areas.

With this project, we wanted to create a space for a variety of members of the community to interact. We knew that we wanted space for tennis courts and basketball courts, because those seemed to be the most appreciated features of the park. We also knew that we wanted to have more open space and more seating, both of which needed to be free of association with the playground.We decided to change the whole layout of the park, adding a concession stand, more seating, and more green space, and enclosing the whole space in a green wall.

In this image, A is the building with the concession stand and bathroom, B is the basketball court, C is the entrance off of Eastern Ave., D is the tennis court, E is the entrance off of Cherry St., F is open space, G is seating, and H is the playground. This arrangement allows visitors who are interested in playing tennis or basketball to go straight to the courts. It also has bathrooms at a central location, which makes it easier for everyone to access. Putting the playground away from the entrance allows visitors who aren’t interested in going to the playground to avoid that area.