MILL RACE PARK IN DOWNTOWN COLUMBUS

In 1984, J. Irwin Miller was honored by the city with a 75th birthday celebration in Mill Race Park that was attended by over 5,000. The celebration also honored his wife Xenia and sister Clementine Tangeman for their unparalleled contributions to Columbus. During that celebration, many commented that the park might become something special with the input of a master planner, and this led to Van Valkenburgh being brought in to offer a proposed design.

A series of “follies” that become micro-destinations are found throughout the park. Designed in collaboration with Stanley Saitowitz, these structures, highlighted with a signature red painted metal, include a dramatic arc of lights that frame the entrance to the park, an 84-foot observation tower that provides a bird’s-eye view of downtown Columbus, a boathouse, a river lookout, a fishing pier, the amphitheater stage, an arbor, restrooms, and picnic shelters. Saitowitz’s creative playfulness is on display with restrooms that have curved roofs signifying an M and W.

The round pond provides a central feature that is experienced from a looping road that includes an historic covered bridge that was relocated to the park. The mounded crescent-shaped amphitheater at the park entry provides the other grand gesture in the park – the ampitheater hosts Columbus’ largest outside events. A landscaped parking lot is integrated into the park next to a remnant tannery foundation wall, bounded by a preexisting allée of linden trees.

While much of the natural setting was preserved, hardy new species were selected that could withstand saturated soils and drought. The overall affordability and durability of the site materials reflects an intentional efficiency for both construction and low maintenance of the park.

From Van Valkenburgh’s website :

Mill Race Park is located at the confluence of two rivers, and much of the parkland is an active floodplain. Prior to the construction of the park, the site was cut off from adjacent business and residential districts by regional railroad tracks. Community members, eager to put the land to public use, had spent many years informally building trails, but the site remained a large swath of feral landscape. Foremost among the constraints of the Mill Race site was the issue of annual flooding. Rather than attempt to prevent or shut out the regular flood waters, MVVA’s design explores numerous ways to integrate this natural annual rhythm into the use and experience of the site.

The overall affordability and durability of the site materials reflect an intentional efficiency of means and materials in both the construction and the maintenance of the park. The fill generated in the excavation of Round Lake was used to build an earthen amphitheater as well as the berms around the basketball court. Many of the paved surfaces use reinforced concrete instead of asphalt, which can be peeled up by floods. The steel and glass block restroom walls are raised to allow flood waters to flow through; the playground is elevated on a wide earth platform; the amphitheater stage is nestled into the protected higher ground of the crescent landform. Plantings include mostly hardy native species, including grasses that can weather drought and trees that can withstand saturated soils.

Mill Race Park received a 1994 ASLA Design Merit Award and a 1993 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award.

See the original page HERE.

• The bridges of Bartholomew County
• Rental information for park facilities