Riverside Park Asheville, NC. Photo courtesy of RiverLink
By Emma Castleberry
RiverLink, a nonprofit devoted to promoting the environmental and economic vitality of the French Broad River and its watershed for all, has announced plans for a new public park along Riverside Drive at the Pearson Bridge. Gateway to the Greenways will feature meandering pathways, native plantings and arched gateways at both entrances. A focal piece of the park will be a pavilion modeled after a carousel found in this location in the early 1900s, when this parcel was home to the historic Riverside Park.
“The historic Riverside Park was a WNC destination up until the 1915 fire and 1916 flood,” says Hannah Coats, land resources manager for RiverLink. “There was a boathouse with movie screen, a carousel, a dance hall with room for a live band, animal displays and more. Electric trollies brought visitors from downtown and West Asheville, and all of it was powered by hydroelectricity from the French Broad. After the flood carried everything away, this area was neglected and eventually began to be used as a dump by residents and later the City. There’s a hint of allegory here, too—if development doesn’t respect the river, the river will eventually take what we build.”
Gateway Park will complement the multi-model transportation improvements that are planned for the Riverside Drive corridor, including new protected bike and pedestrian lanes and an extended riverside greenway past White Duck Taco north to Pearson Bridge. “When complete,” says Coats, “these improvements will provide an essential link between greenways and river parks in Asheville’s River Arts District and those of the ongoing Woodfin Greenway & Blueway project in one of the busiest travel corridors in the Asheville area.”
The 2-acre parcel was donated to RiverLink in 2011. The public “parklet” will take up 1.3 acres between the rail line and Riverside Drive, while the riverside portion will be designated as a riparian zone for river health and flood resilience. Limitations, such as right-of-ways for power lines, sewer and the railroad, required a creative approach for the park’s development.
“Our focus for the design of this space is to provide a small pocket park along the larger greenway system that will provide users with the opportunity to experience nature and respite,” says Megan Foy with Equinox Environmental, the landscape architecture firm that is designing the park. “As Equinox specializes in sustainable design, we will focus on including native plant species and ecosystem improvements in a largely urban context while also paying homage to the historical use of the site.”
Soon, work will begin to remove invasive plant species from the property. “This will really kick off the development of the park by giving Equinox a better view of the parcel and allowing them to finalize their design for the park,” says Coats. “We anticipate the park to be completed and open to the public next summer.”
Learn more at RiverLink.org.
