A parks master plan for a small city of 13,000, including public engagement, parks system visioning, and the development of pilot projects.
Due north of New Orleans on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, the historic City of Mandeville has long been a bucolic waterfront retreat from urban life where the natural landscape is woven into everyday experience. In response to recent growth and development pressure, and building on the City’s recent investments in a Resilience Plan and Pedestrian & Bicycle Plan, this parks master plan seeks to strengthen Mandeville’s identity as a place of natural beauty by prioritizing a nature-based approach to park design and maintenance, increasing multimodal connectivity between parks to improve safety and equitable access, and reconnecting the City’s natural bayous to the lakefront.
The master plan begins with fundamentals of water, land, and ecology. The essential underlying layers of this place can be easily forgotten, but they tend to be rediscovered: for example, historic waterways make their presence known during flood events. Working with, rather than against, these essential natural systems is key to Mandeville’s identity as a place of natural beauty. Practically, a shared understanding of the native plant communities of this area can help to guide plant selection and programming of new parks and open spaces.
The plan recommends growing the park system with three new signature parks: a former city landfill that will connect underserved neighborhoods to an existing regional bike trail, a lakefront park that will pilot a living shoreline protected by off-shore breakwaters, and a neighborhood stormwater park with an outdoor classroom that will reconnect the flow of a historic bayou and mitigate localized flooding.
Client
City of Mandeville
Year
2024
Project Area
7.3 SQ MI
Awards
AIA New Orleans Merit Award
AIA Louisiana Award of Merit