South Baltimore Gateway Partnership Announces Design Team and Public Meeting for Conway Street Park’s North Plaza Renovation
South Baltimore Gateway Partnership (SBGP) issued a competitive request for qualifications (RFQ) in late 2022 for the renovation of the North Plaza of Conway Street Park, located in the Ridgely’s Delight neighborhood. SBGP is thrilled to announce that EnviroCollab has been selected as the design team for this exciting project!
In the mid-1980s, brick paving was added to the neighborhood in conjunction with the redesign of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Everything south of Conway Street was torn down to create the highway right of way, and some of that area became Conway Street Park where the State planted trees and put in brick sidewalks. Conway Street Park is approximately 70,666 square feet and the adjoining brick plaza on the residential side is 6,800 square feet. The brick, “North Plaza,” is currently in disrepair, limiting its potential as an inclusive, beautiful community gathering space. This project will design a restored North Plaza, an improved, ADA accessible, usable space for the community that will also support tree health and minimize root impact on the future Plaza’s surface.
To best serve the community, SBGP and EnviroCollab will host a community engagement meeting to facilitate community feedback. In this effort, the team will inform the community about the early stages of design, and residents will be able to respond openly to the concepts brought forward. This meeting will take place on Monday, April 17, from 6:30 – 8:00pm on the second floor of Pickles Pub (510 Washington Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21230) with a virtual option (via Zoom). A second, follow-up event will take place in May.
“The EnviroCollab design team is honored to partner with South Baltimore Gateway Partnership and the Ridgely’s Delight community to re-envision a key open space in this historic neighborhood. Conway Street Park is uniquely positioned at a prominent intersection of anchor sports venues, major arterial roads, and local institutions and businesses, and has been a treasured community amenity for decades. This project presents an opportunity to identify a transformative set of community goals and aspirations for the future of the entire park, and a more immediate design plan for enhancing the North Plaza, a popular gathering space for neighborhood events. We look forward to co-facilitating a collaborative visioning and design process with local residents and stakeholders that will help ensure the North Plaza and larger Conway Street Park are prioritizing flexible use, universal design and accessibility, the community’s social and cultural programming needs, and environmental sustainability,” said Heidi Thomas, EnviroCollab’s Founding Principal.
Questions? Contact SBGP Enhanced Services Director, Liz Cornish: lcornish@sbgpartnership.org
