Parks that Work | A Park that Cleans Water

Most people consider parks as places for recreation and fun. But if designed and cared for properly, parks can be places that work, too.

For the first post in this series titled “Parks that Work”, let’s explore a place that not only features water – it cleans it.

The 2004 redesign of Miller-Showers Park in Bloomington, IN, was borne out of this progressive college town’s concerns about the environment and its ability to attract a modern, talented workforce in an age of easy mobility.

Bloomington’s leaders made the connection between quality of life and workforce talent earlier than most towns, and decided to invest in the emerging idea of “parks as stormwater management”.

The existing park’s location was often considered to be a large, overgrown median, a space recognizable to almost any town or city in America. This parcel was also strategically located at a key entrance to the city, offering city leaders the perfect opportunity to create a calming, welcoming green space while at the same time showing off Bloomington’s progressive ideas about public health, recreation, connectivity and the environment.

Most importantly, the park was envisioned to be a showcase of sustainability. Conceptually, it’s designed to exhibit the natural stormwater treatment process in its entirety, with a system of wetland basins and weirs that follow the path of an existing stream. Deployed together, these landscape elements capture runoff, filter it, and leave it 80 percent cleaner than when it enters the park. Trails and viewing platforms make the park accessible and provide platforms for viewing this natural approach to stormwater management up close.

Miller-Showers Park proves that great park design can do multiple things at once: provide a place for play and recreation; support the natural environment while enhancing the built one; and send a message about a city’s ideals, priorities and values.