Watkins St Charrette: Parks + [re]creation

Watkins St Charrette: Parks + [re]creation
Watkins Street Park, 2411 E 12th St, Chattanooga, TN 37404

The City of Chattanooga has long thought to repurpose a 4.5 acre parcel located in the historic mill town neighborhood of Ridgedale but has never come up with a plan. With the adaptive reuse of two nearby mills and a grassroots effort to create a greenway trail along an abandoned railroad right of way that would connect a number of urban neighborhoods to downtown and the Riverwalk trail network, the city is once again reconsidering how this parcel might better serve the community. We’re inviting architects and students from across the state to work with city officials and community stakeholders to brainstorm big ideas for the city to use in developing their plan for the future of the site. 

Currently the site is home to the Watkins Street Park and the sports and programming division of the city’s Parks department. The department works out of a 1960’s era office building that was donated to the city by the adjacent (former) papermill. The department’s needs currently occupy about half of the building while the other half sits empty or is used for storage. Much of the site is not dedicated to the park or the building but is simply used for vehicle storage. The site is also located at a critical point along the proposed greenway trail, called the East Line. At this location, the trail’s east/west connection to downtown turns north/south to run through a series of urban neighborhoods and connect to a planned expansion of the city’s bikes trails and Riverwalk network. The importance of this lynch pin underscores the role that this site plays in the future of how Chattanooga’s development patterns can accommodate infill growth while balancing the longstanding systemic equity challenges that development can bring.