Water quality park educates the public while maintaining public green space
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationConway, Arkansas, United States
ClientCity of Conway, Arkansas
Size1.75 acres

“The vision for Martin Luther King Jr. Square leverages site design to demonstrate a different future for storm water management in Conway. The park will transform a brownfield site plagued by flooding into a lively storm water park and cultural asset for the city.”

– City of Conway, Arkansas

The City of Conway received local and federal grants to create a water quality demonstration park in a flood-prone, one-block area of its downtown to educate the public about Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Infrastructure (GI) methods and how they can enhance water quality. The project transformed a remediated brownfield site, subject to seasonal flooding, into a 300-square-foot urban public space that showcases how LID/GI techniques work with nature to manage rainwater as close to its source as possible, using a variety of measures to slow, filter, infiltrate, and evaporate the runoff in this low-lying area. Martin Luther King Jr. Square is artfully engineered to be a unique demonstration of an urban setting functioning in an environmentally responsible way, reducing nonpoint source pollution in the Lake Conway-Point Remove watershed and delivering ecosystem services such as air quality regulation, water regulation, water infiltration, erosion control, nutrient cycling, and recreation. LID/GI methods that were implemented include permeable hardscapes, vegetated living walls, bioswales, and rain gardens. The project also includes workshops, videos, and informational graphics to help educate the public about water quality.

Related Projects

Evelyn’s Park

In honor of their late matriarch Evelyn, the Rubenstein family donated a historically and geographically prominent five-acre tract on the busy Bellaire Boulevard and created a conservancy to fund a public park with primarily private funds, while engaging the public in its design and development. This park seeks to be reflective and adaptive to the local cultur...

Ningbo East New Town Civic Plaza

As an extension of the Ningbo East New Town Government Center, this civic plaza extends the geometry and ecology of SWA’s past work in the city. A central civic axis runs from the government buildings to the Dongqian Lake edge, providing a large, flexible gathering/event space adjacent to an expansive lawn as well as sweeping views of the water. Per city plann...

Katy Trail

Katy Trail represents a remarkable resource for the residents of the Dallas Fort Worth region. This project enlivens and makes accessible right-of-way established by the storied, but later abandoned, Missouri-Kansas-Texas (better known as the “Katy”) line, and serves as a unifying element for the surrounding neighborhoods. Katy Trail provides appro...

Resonant Memory: One October Memorial

Inspired by the shared love of country music that brought people from all over the world together for the Route 91 Music Festival, Resonant Memory is based on the shape of an acoustic guitar. The design makes particular use of the instrument’s sound hole as a recurring motif to represent absence, honoring the lives lost on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada...

Naftzger Park

Naftzger Park offers a contemporary and communal gathering space in downtown Wichita with enough variety to appeal to everyone.  Designed to activate an area of town between Old Town and a burgeoning new entertainment district, the park is at once an urban foyer and outdoor recreation room.  A contemporary pavilion can accommodate picnic tables by day and perf...

Griggs Park Redevelopment

Griggs Park, a historically important open space located in Uptown Dallas, had not kept pace with the ever-evolving culture and artistic neighborhood surrounding it. The new design reflects the changes in urban uses for the now-vibrant neighborhood. Established in the 1940s, the park is the first dedicated to an African American in Dallas. It transitioned with...

Great Park

One of the world’s largest municipal parks, the 1,300-acre Great Park in Irvine, California, is currently under construction with phased openings continuing through 2029. The conceptual framework encompasses redesign and implementation of near- and longer-term uses, with the intent to “put the park back into the park.” The vast site, which was once the Marine ...

Embankment Square

The Embankment Square is located along the east bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The project consists of landscape areas in three office parcels and one waterfront park parcel. The view of the site is remarkable, looking toward the landmark skyscrapers of Lujiazui Financial Center, Nanpu Bridge, the Bund, and the Minsheng CBD.

The design concept c...