How often does a 200+ yr old city like Cleveland acquire the land and resources to create a brand new 25 acre public park, with city skyline and water views? It’s happening now!
LAND Studio’s energetic leader, Executive Director, Greg Peckham, shared the progress on the creation of Ohio’s City’s newest park, IrishTown Bend Park at their offices in Hingetown, then…….
…….led us on a short hike for a bird’s eye view of that progress from the Detroit Superior Bridge.
Most locals have never had the chance to set foot on the property that is being turned into this park. It took years of negotiating wtih different property owners just to assemble all the needed parts. Locals may have driven past the overgrown hillside for years as they traversed down crumbling and bumpy Franklin Boulevard to get to Major Hooples or Merwin’s Wharf on Columbus Road in The Flats.
So, that is exactly what the first stage of the park’s creation is focused on. Clearing the land and stabilizing the river bank. Once the bulkhead is shored up, work can begin on the amenities of the park.
IrishTown Bend Park is the last piece of a 101 miles of trails and parks anchored by The TowPath Trail that connects Lake Erie to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and continues south to New Philadelphia. The ultimate goal is to have the Cleveland Metroparks manage and maintain the park once it is open.
And this is just one of they many projects that the small but mighty staff at LAND Studio is working on and breaking down barriers to access so all people have the ability to enjoy public art and greenspace, LAND Studio’s work stretches from huge projects that are years in the making (like IrishTown Bend and before that Public Square) all the way to being a quiet convener and collaborator to bring magical works of art like the dozens of bluebird sculptures tucked into trees and on utility poles in Cleveland’s Battery Park neighborhood (fun Eye Spy game for kids).
But back to IrishTown Bend Park. So many voices are part of this project, including residents of public housing buildings within a 5 minute walk of the park who are paid to attend planning meetings. Their input helped add the Crooked River Play House – a natural playground for kids to have fun and blow off steam – to the overall plan.
Named for the 19th century Irish immigrants who settled in this area, the land has been home to many cultures since then including Hungarians, Jews, and Blacks. The park will physically mark the the archeological area that has been designated as an Irish Heritage Site by the National Park Service and the National Register of Historic Places so that visitors can see the outlines of where the original homes stood and can even find the front door/address of a distant relative who lived in this neighborhood.
The Port of Cleveland has been working on the $60M stabilization of the hill and the river for the past year and groundbreaking for the park itself is scheduled for late 2025 and will take two years to complete.
IrishTown Bend Park will be a neighborhood park with a regional draw and will feature
- Great Lawn – concerts, events, watch the fireworks
- Wetland Healing Garden – sit quietly to watch butterflies, read a book
- Hilltop Grill Garden – buy picnic items at West Side Market and have a meal
- Amphitheater – to watch the freighters navigating the S-curves, watch rowing competitions, movies projected on the footings of the Detroit Superior Bridge
- Pond, bike and walking paths, and a cafe to sit and have lunch or grab and go
Note the string of blooming Eastern Red Bud trees along the bike path below….just one of the many new trees being grown at Rid-All Farm (a partnership with this unique non-profit that is a working farm in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood that brings togther agriculture and youth education) to add tree canopy to the park.
When the park is complete, LAND Studio believes it will showcase the environment, industry, social justice, sustainability, city planning, history and more.
on other side of bridge
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