June 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 48

LY N N B R O O K P A R K

(1930s-1940s) as a public works
project to allow stormwater to
drain from the area into the Dobbs
Branch stream and eventually out
to the Tennessee River. Over time,
it has lost its functionality, and the
ditch currently flows inefficiently,
causing flooding in the area. The
City of Chattanooga is looking at
the site to not only provide a park
for residents, but also to improve
water flow and quality through reclamation of the site.
For project manager Akosua
Cook, it made sense to combine
the environmental improvements
with the creation of a park. " It
has these cumulative benefits - it
would bring over 3,000 residents
within a 10-minute walk of a park,
it would reduce heat island effect,
it would improve the overall flooding issues in the area, and it would
improve that whole watershed,
[which] would improve water quality for the residents. It is a great
overall location and will provide a
great overall impact for the area, "
says Cook.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND

Lynnbrook Park's planning and conceptual designs are finished, and the park is
scheduled to open in spring 2022.

48 Parks & Recreation

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Envisioning a Future Park
What sets this project apart from
many others is its creative community engagement process. " We
wanted to be intentional with this
space, really listening to this adjacent neighborhood, and focusing
on the needs and desires of that
community, " explains Cook. " In
2016, our local Trust for Public
Land office, along with our Public Art department, applied for a
National Endowment of the Arts
grant. They used it to do a creative
engagements strategy, where they
hired a local artist to do a series of
public engagement events to find
out what type of park would make
the most sense in this area. "
For NRPA, it's the community
relationship that makes this project coalesce. " I think collectively
what makes this project come together is the arts-based, inclusive
and intentional engagement used
to create the park that had a cascading effect on the project, " says
Banner. " To begin, the engagement was led by a local artist who
centered the community culture
in his engagement and sought not
only to build a park, but [also] to
truly build community through
the process. The process started by

asking how people currently enjoy
the outdoors and what memories
they would want to create in the
space, as opposed to asking what
amenities they would like to see.
Ultimately, it led to a design that
creates a place for people to feel
safe, [and to] connect with nature,
water and people in their community in addition to so much more. "
Spearheading the public engagement was local artist, lawyer and
writer Josiah Golson. " I approach
community engagement with the
belief that its process should genuinely reflect the culture of the community that I am serving, " Golson
states in the Lynnbrook Community
Design Sketchbook (tinyurl.com/
vmy32rd6). For this project, Golson assembled a team of forwardthinking individuals to help create
a place where community members could " engage authentically
with their own experiences and
help us imagine the potential for
the space. " Golson's diverse team
included Daniela Peterson from
The Trust for Public Land, architect Roy Wroth and multimedia
artist Botany Rain.
Through their work, the group
" seeks to unpack the complexity of
communities and issues through im-

http://www.tinyurl.com/vmy32rd6 http://www.tinyurl.com/vmy32rd6

June 2021 - Parks & Recreation

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