The developers creating an elevated park on a disused bridge in Washington D.C are to begin feasibility testing and community outreach programmes early this year as the project enters the pre-construction phase.

Architects Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and landscape designers OLIN have designed the park to sit on the city’s 11th Street Bridge, which links Capitol Hill and the Anacostia neighbourhood and is currently being replaced. When finished, the site will be a green-filled public space for healthy recreation, environmental education and the arts.

The project, called Bridge Park, is being developed by the district government and the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) non-profit group. They are preparing to complete environmental and health impact assessments and begin load testing of the bridge in the first months of 2016.

“Bridge Park will span the capital’s cityscape and include outdoor performance spaces, playgrounds, urban agriculture, classrooms to teach students about river systems and public art that tells the rich history of the region,” said THEARC in a statement. “It will be a destination for some, a pedestrian or bicycle route for others and an iconic architectural symbol across the Anacostia River.”

A host of community outreach programmes have been scheduled to raise awareness and funding for the scheme.

The University of the District of Columbia and local faith communities have joined together to install the park’s first community gardens, while students from Capitol Hill’s Cesar Chavez Public Charter School are developing prototype public art for the park. It has also been announced that a temporary man-made beach will be created along the riverbank in the summer to further raise the site’s profile.

The overall budget for the park is estimated to be somewhere in the region of US$45m (£31.5m, €41.3m). The Washington D.C. City Government has committed US$14.5m (£10.1m, €13.3m) of funding to the project, and a grant of US$1.2m (£840,000, €1.1m) has been donated by the charitable Kresge Foundation, which invests in community development schemes. Further funds will be sought this year.

Speaking to CLAD last year, project director Scott Kratz said he hoped construction would begin in 2017, and the park would open in late 2018 at the earliest.

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FEATURE: Features – The High Line