Symphony Woods is located within close proximity to Columbia downtown centre, between Little Patuxent Parkway and the Merriweather Post Pavilion, a well known event venue for rock concerts. The park is a cultural setting for arts and civic use and the proposed upgrade is an important step to facilitate the growing population urban regeneration of the downtown area.
The design objective is to create a landmark project of international recognition to promote Columbia’s cultural events and festivals; and to provide a high quality recreation and leisure amenity for the city. The existing park is covered with trees originally planted on open farmland fty years ago, with little succession planning with the understorey predominately mowed grassed that has been severely compacted with heavy use and a lack of suitable hard pavement to ac- commodate the excessive use.
The first step was to rehabilitate and create a new park vision. Martha Schwartz Partners, working with Mahan Rykiel and Bio Habitats, worked on the masterplan to provide a path network, proposed over two hundred new trees, designated meadow areas and rehabilitated the existing stream. The next step was to provide the components to enhance the programmatic use of the park and establish the essence of the vision. This included the ‘Caterpillar’ - a four metre diameter 260 metre long round green wall, that serves as the boundary between Merriweather and Symphony Woods with the provision of numerous interactive uses, such as audio, sound, art opportunities, mist and lights. Nestled at the lowest part of the site is the ‘Picnic Table’, a 300 foot long bench, covered with arti cial grass. Elevated to seating height, this provides the ability to seat upto 300 people during festivals, and during days when the natural grass is wet, an opportunity for people to picnic on a dry surface. A Playground, called the ‘Merriground’ with bespoke play elements and contained with a timber ‘frame’ used for seating and that at irregular intervals morphed into spiralling seating and sculptural features.
In addition to the landscape works, the development proposed a new amphitheatre, called the Chrysalis Pavilion, designed by TheVeryMany Architects and the Butterfly Building designed by nArchitects.
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