“More than 30 years after Atlanta’s Freedom Park emerged from successful grassroots efforts to block a highway expansion, the need for a new vision for the park’s future has arisen. Seeking to unify constituent desires around economic viability alongside ecological value, some 70 potential initiatives were identified and prioritized according to ease of implementation, duration, and cost. Told in a compelling narrative, the People’s Plan exemplifies the imperative goals we need to achieve if we are truly to move forward as socially equitable communities.”
– 2021 ASLA National Awards Jury
In the late 20th century, Atlanta faced a critical juncture as a proposed highway threatened to tear through seven urban communities. From this crisis emerged a powerful grassroots movement whose victory not only halted the highway but birthed Freedom Park, a 130-acre green space stretching over 2.5 miles.
For years, Freedom Park existed as a patchwork of disconnected green spaces, its full potential unrealized. The Freedom Park Conservancy initiated a master planning process to transform this infrastructural “scar tissue” into “connective tissue” linking the community. The challenge: honor the park’s legacy of civic action while meeting the evolving needs of a diverse, multigenerational constituency.
Through virtual platforms, interactive tools, and targeted outreach, a true “People’s Plan” was created, identifying over 70 potential projects rooted in three guiding principles: Assembly, Education, and Connection. The final framework acknowledges Freedom Park’s position as a nexus of civil rights history, connecting Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace with the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library via the John Lewis Freedom Parkway.
By interweaving local, national, and international significance, the park tells a uniquely American story of resilience and progress. Freedom Park stands as a living testament to hard-won victories and the ongoing pursuit of equality and justice.
Winner, 2021 Honor Award – Analysis and Planning, ASLA National
Tulsa Riverfront Park
SWA directed conceptual studies for incorporating a landmark residential estate, a multi-family housing complex and a creek corridor into the adjacent Arkansas River waterfront of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently acquired by a local community foundation, the total 64-acre area features sweeping lawns and a historic home that provides much-needed space for the city’s ...
Halperin Park
Halperin Park (previously known as Southern Gateway Park) caps Highway 35 in South Dallas directly adjacent to the Dallas Zoo and the Oak Cliff neighborhood. The park’s design effectively reconnects the neighborhood, which was cleaved by the highway’s construction many decades ago.
Recognizing the reunification’s significance, the cap park design introd...
Fernwood Avenue Park
The Fernwood Avenue Park represents a significant opportunity for the city to enhance the water quality and availability of groundwater for residents, while also offering public amenities. Equipped with four detention basins that capture water onsite and from the street, the project plays an important role in the community as a stormwater infiltration site. Th...
Lianjiang Park
Located between a mountain and river in rapidly growing Changsha, Lianjiang Park commands a critical juncture between city, nature, and a changing way of life. While the Lianjiang region had always been intimately linked to the water, recent urban development has resulted in a significant loss of wetlands, habitats, and the culture they give rise to.
In...