Laclede’s Landing continues to see redevelopment, with the completion of a new park close to the riverfront.
Around 80 volunteers gathered Wednesday morning to build the Laclede’s Landing Active Art Park, the latest installation from Pocketparks.
The local nonprofit had been considering building one of its parks for a few years and interfaced with the local neighborhood about the best way to make that happen, said Samantha Smugala, president and founder of Pocketparks.
“We have such an amazing riverfront in St. Louis (and) parts of it are underutilized,” she said. “Let’s activate the space in a way that makes sense, an outdoor, public space that people can come to enjoy and really get to spend time next to our beautiful riverfront.”
Smugala noted the two lots that now house the new park aren’t prime spots for development because they could flood. Instead, they now sport a few disc golf cages, several metal planters with flowers, benches and sculptures developed with STL Artworks and made by local teenagers, she said.
“They’re commissioned pieces from the community,” Smugala said. “Now that group of teens gets to see their artwork out in public space, being celebrated, being utilized.”
For Laclede’s Landing Neighborhood Association Executive Director Brandyn Jones, the new park fills otherwise vacant lots.
“We’re just thrilled about it, plus it’s pretty,” she said. “If there’s just a vacant area it can be daunting or not feel quite right. This shows this is a place to feel comfortable, build community and meet people.”
And it becomes one more thing people can visit while at the landing, which is also adding more apartments and will soon include retail space, Jones said.
“It’s part of continuing to improve the look of the landing,” she said. “If mom and dad are in town, or if friends are over, there’s a bench to come sit, watch the river, look at the bridge, look at the flowers.”
This new park joins two other acclaimed ones in its direct vicinity: the Katherine Ward Burg Garden Park and the Gateway Arch National Park.
“We’re like the little brother, little sister,” Smugala said. “We really try to showcase how accessible and affordable placemaking can be.”
She calls this new park an example of “tactical urbanism,” quickly putting semi-permanent structures in place (the whole building of this park took less than three hours) that any community could do. It may not be at the scale of the nearby parks, but it’s also something that doesn’t break the bank, Smugala added.
Wednesday’s project cost $11,000, orders of magnitude cheaper than the millions that went into the Katherine Ward Burg Garden Park and the hundreds of millions that have gone into the Arch grounds.
“We still appreciate and enjoy these beautiful parks that have a ton of investment,” Smugala said. “It’s still really important to showcase how you can transform a space in a simple way and build from there. It makes a huge visual transformation, and it changes perception about properties.”
The construction of the new Laclede’s Landing Active Art Park also coincides with the Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference in St. Louis this week. Many of the volunteers on Wednesday are attending the gathering including Tarik Abdelazim, vice president of technical assistance for the nonprofit Center for Community Progress.
“It demonstrates the power of passion, people and partnerships,” he said. “In just three hours we transformed (these lots) because people brought passion for this work. Hopefully, this will now serve as an asset for the residents of St. Louis for years to come.”
