April 26, 2007

Urban oasis
Long-awaited greenspace could open next spring

By Jim Balow


Charleston Gazette Staff writer

A series of terraces, planted with native oak, maple, beech and birch trees. Beneath the trees an understory of mountain laurel, dogwoods and flame azaleas, with a groundcover of Allegheny spurge and ladyferns. A small pool surrounded by limestone and boulders.

This fall, workers could begin to transform a rundown parking lot across Washington Street from the Clay Center into an urban oasis. The long-awaited Gateway Greenspace could be open to the public by this time next year, Marita Roos said.

A principal with Philadelphia landscape architects Andropogon Associates, Roos went over final drawings for the project with a reporter Wednesday, pointing out where different individual trees and rocks will be placed. “It will be an assemblage of plants native to this part of West Virginia,” she said. “I guess you could say the theme is Appalachian Spring. Picture Aaron Copland.”

Roos sat down with subcontractors and project backers earlier Wednesday to discuss final details of the park. Potesta and Associates has helped with the design, and Clingenpeel/McBrayer & Associates is the electrical contractor.

The Charleston Area Alliance and one of its predecessors, Charleston Renaissance Corp., has been planning the park for about seven years.

A Renaissance committee headed by Ted Armbrecht raised nearly $2 million, but acquisition of the final parcel of the roughly one-acre site held things up for years. Now it’s on the fast track.

“We should be finished with the design by June, bid the project in July and start construction by September,” Roos said. The trees and shrubs will be arranged on a series of four irregular stepped terraces, the highest 8 feet above street level, she said, “so it will appear if you’re standing on the lawn like a cliff wall.”

Local building materials will complement the native plantings. “We hope to stratify these [retaining] walls with stone native to this part of West Virginia, layered in the order they are found.” Limestone, which crops out of the ground in Greenbrier County, goes lowest, with sandstone above.

Coal, another native rock, is also part of the plan, Armbrecht said. “We’re talking to people about getting a major cut of rock that would show the various layers, including coal.” A dry stream will cascade down the terraces and feed a small pool, Roos said. “We hope to feed it with rainwater that will fill a cistern beneath the terraces. We hope to capture rainwater from the adjacent building [the Byard Trust building on Leon Sullivan Way]. The idea is to feed the plants from West Virginia rainwater.”

Planners see the park as an educational tool, possibly for school groups that visit the Clay Center. Interpretive signs will briefly describe the park’s features, and teacher workbooks will provide more depth.

“This will be a learning space,” Armbrecht said. “Why is it here? Why is it planted some down here, some up there? The rocks will be a major learning experience. Sandstone: How did the sand get here? When was the day of the Great Teays River?”

The park will be as environmentally friendly as possible. Rainwater will be captured on site, so none will flow off into the city’s overburdened storm drains. “We want to use only florescent lighting, and dark skies,” Armbrecht said. Dark skies means the lights will face downward, to avoid adding to light pollution that obscures viewing the stars at night. “We’re going to price out solar panels to provide our electricity. We’re not sure it will work. We may have to supplement it.”

Even the type of grass, or lack of it, will be chosen with care. “We have cut down on the amount of lawn that will be grass, partly for maintenance and partly for use of fertilizer,” he said. “There will be some grass. But it’s not a high-maintenance type of facility.”

To contact staff writer Jim Balow, use e-mail or call 348-5102.