By. Esmé Barker
It’s around noon on a beautiful spring day when you and your friends are walking down a trail, enjoying the feeling of the sunlight beaming down on you as you take in your surroundings. Looking to your right, you spot a creek rushing away from you. Bending down, you pick a stick up off the ground and toss it into the water, watching as it washes away, eventually moving out of sight. Turning your head away from the creek, you see that your friends are a few yards ahead of you, engaged in a light-hearted argument, laughing at their own failed attempts to prove their points. Lightly jogging to catch up with them, you join in on their conversation. You continue walking down the trail as the lush green surroundings of the forest fade back into an open green space.
The three of you stop at a nearby food truck for lunch. You sit down at a picnic table, watching the thinner branches of trees move back and forth in the light breeze. Noticing your order is ready, you take your food to go, and continue walking through the park with your friends, this time admiring the skyline of the city until you arrive at the Moody Amphitheatre, eager to claim the best seats for a performance from a local band happening later that evening. Before you know it, you can see the sun setting as the sky fills with color, including a light purple haze. The band begins to play, causing the crowd to start cheering. You sing along with the music, enjoying the perfect ending to your day.
In less than a year, an outing like this could be easily possible as a weekend activity. Set to be completed in the fall of 2020, Waterloo Park, along with the Moody Amphitheater, will provide the perfect place to hang out or take a walk, along with offering various activities and events.
Since 2010, an organization called Waterloo Greenway, originally called Waller Creek Conservancy, has been renovating a thirty-five-acre plot of land. The area, a series of parks, trails, and more improvements in the city, are connected by a creek called Waller Creek flowing through them. The chain is a mile and a half long, spanning from 15th Street to Lady Bird Lake, and is divided into sections such as Waterloo Park, Palm Park, or Symphony Square.
The construction of the Waterloo Greenway park/trail chain is split into three phases. Phase one is currently under construction. It’s completing an eleven-acre area to be known as Waterloo Park. Waterloo Park is located between 12th and 15th Streets along Red River, in the heart of downtown Austin. The area reflects the landscapes of Austin and Central Texas, including hill country gardens, wetland spaces, expansive lawns for gathering and activities, and around a mile and a half of trails within the park. The park will include the Moody Amphitheater(a theatre capable of seating up to five thousand people) and the already completed Symphony Square.
Phase two is currently still in design and is set to complete the nine-acre Creek Delta area by 2022. Construction for phase two is set to begin sometime in 2020, most likely after the completion of phase one. The final phase, phase three, is in its pre-design planning process and will create Palm Park and Pontoon Bridge. Phase three is set to be completed somewhere from 2023 to 2026 and will finish the Waterloo Greenway project with a fifteen-acre chunk, completing the entirety of the beautiful park area. “I’m pretty excited to see the project go forward and be transformed, just because this was an area that really wasn’t paid attention to,” says Melissa Hawthorn, vice president of Austin Permit Service.
As part of the renovations, Waller Creek will be redone, turning an area once prone to flash floods, along with poor water quality and eroding banks, into a beautiful creek running through the Waterloo Greenway park/trail system into Lady Bird Lake. “If you go to the google, and you look on that area on the map, and you go backward in time, man it’s just kinda a ditch. So the project to me, it gave attention to something that really needed it… that way the fish and the birds can also have a place to go, as opposed to just a big ditch,” Melissa Hawthorn said.
Due to years of flooding, the creek’s remaining natural banks have been eroded enough to take large chunks of dirt and rock out of the landscape, exposing things such as tree roots and what were once well-buried storm drain pipes. “When the city council moved forward the Waller Creek Tunnel Project, it actually transformed the area because a lot of that was in the floodplain, and so the project, while it creates this parkland space with the amphitheater, it also treats the sidewalls of the creek, and tries to restore the eco-balance that was lacking… the restoration is what I think excites me more,” explained Melissa.
Austin, Texas is currently the fastest growing city in the United States of America with about one hundred new residents each day. Because of the rapidly expanding population in Austin, along with other cities throughout the world, more condos, apartments, offices, and other large buildings are being built. As these cities grow and take up more land, there is less and less space for parks and other green spaces.
While some people may not see the importance of parks, there are many benefits to having parks in urban areas. For example, parks in cities help to clean the air and generally improve public health. Trees in urban parks are shown to remove 7,111,000 tons of toxins from the air annually. Additionally, parks help to filter water, keeping drinking water safe and reducing the risk of developing a waterborne illness in cities. Parks can encourage people to have more active lifestyles, which helps people’s physical and mental health. “Every great city has great parks. They act as cultural centers and gathering places. They also provide opportunities for people to get outside and enjoy nature while they are still in the city. Waterloo will also be another great place for Austinites to listen to live music in a really cool venue,” says Nick Molinet, a worker for DPR Construction with twenty-five years of experience in the land development industry, also the contractor for the Waterloo Greenway Project.
In general, parks and trails in Austin are out near Lake Austin or Lady Bird Lake, so the Waterloo Greenway project will provide a wonderful opportunity for people to take a walk on a trail and relax in a park while still being near the city. “I’m the most excited for the rest of Austin to get to see and play in the park. I’m excited for them to find those little details that are hidden all throughout the project. I’m excited for the area around the park to have activity. This park will absolutely change the city. We don’t have anything like this that’s not on the lake, so this gives us an opportunity to be downtown while still enjoying the outdoors,” said Nick Molinet.
Since 2014, Waterloo Greenway has been hosting annual creek shows to raise awareness of the Waterloo Greenway Project, an event where Waterloo Greenway showcases light-based local art, along with having live music and family-friendly activities set up. Last year, Waterloo Greenway received its biggest turnout yet, with sixty thousand people coming over the course of eleven days. Homer Gonzalez, communications director of Waterloo Greenway, explained that one of the biggest daily challenges that Waterloo Greenway has been facing is the need to raise money for the project. The fundraising team is hosting various fundraisers almost every day in an attempt to raise money for the Waterloo Greenway’s ambitious goal of renovating the thirty-five-acre plot of land.
Waterloo Park is the centerpiece of the Waterloo Greenway project, and will most likely justify further funding for the project once the park is complete. The website for the project talks about the funding for the project: “Waterloo Greenway is funded by a combination of public and private funds. The total estimated project cost is $250M. The City of Austin has committed approximately $150M through bond funding, the Waller Creek Tax Increase Reinvestment Zone, and other sources. The conservancy will raise the remaining $100M from individual, foundation, and corporate contributions, grants, and more.”Waterloo Greenway is still in the process of raising money for the project, but volunteers, sponsors, and donations from various people that want to see a park like this in their city help the organization to raise money for the completion of the project.
The Waller Greenway project is just one example of how people are using parks as a way to include nature in cities. Amazing parks can be found in cities around the world, such as Luxembourg Garden in Paris, Hibiya Park in Tokyo, or Hyde Park in London. This new way of integrating nature into our lives offers a retreat from the rapidly expanding cities that are becoming more abundant around the world.
The park overall will become a wonderful location in Austin, for both tourists and locals. The beautifully redone trails and scenery, including Waller Creek, make for a peaceful spot that can be used for relaxation or just to take a walk after a long day, while the activities and events at the park will provide a fun, family-friendly atmosphere for everybody, hopefully creating a much loved green space for everyone in Austin to enjoy. As the construction of the park progresses, it will be exciting to see what Waterloo Greenway has in store for its amazing and inspiring project, and the prospect of one day having such a beautiful park in Austin easily accessible to the whole community is something that will improve and change the city.
Bibliography
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