Road end design concepts to be unveiled

Surely Madison Park can do better than what currently exists at the end of E. Madison Street: a waterside parking lot with an excellent view. What could have been a lovely amenity for the community has been left for almost 60 years as just an afterthought.

But that’s about to change.

On Thursday evening Murase Associates, the landscape architectural firm hired earlier this year by the Madison Park Community Council, will be presenting the community with its preliminary designs for a revitalized space at the end of the road. The Council’s LOLA (Love Our Lake Access) Committee is sponsoring a community meeting Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Park Shore Retirement Community (1630 43rd Avenue E.) at which Murase’s preliminary concepts will be reviewed and discussed.

This is the community’s opportunity to weigh in on the proposed designs and give input on what we’d like to see replace the cars, concrete, and trash receptacles that now clutter up this prime neighborhood location. The designs are too hush hush for me to be able to present them on this blog (that’s Murase’s design concept for Counterbalance Park shown above). So if you’re interested you’ll just have to attend the meeting to see the illustrations for yourself.

Everyone will get another chance to weigh in when the final designs are presented at a similar public forum, May 26 at 7:00 pm at Park Shore. For more background on LOLA’s efforts, click here.

Here is what the Madison Street road end looked like in the 1930s:

[Graphic courtesy of Murase Associates. Ferry dock photo from the collection of MOHI.]