While waiting outside of the Mayor’s office yesterday I spent the time examining many of the conceptual master plans that were hanging in the hallway. One of those plans was for LaSalle Park. This particular plan was from the Masiello administration and featured some great ideas that never saw the light of day. It’s too bad… because LaSalle Park is the one park that many city officials and community members keep coming back to as the ideal park when it comes to having all of the right potential. The park is situated between the Erie Basin Marina and the future Sunset Promenade. At this point it is an open slate upon which could be drawn the most intelligent waterfront-friendly plan… like maybe the one shown here?
Unfortunately these plans from past administrations never really make it far once a new administration is in power. Actually, I was surprised to see the series of master plans hanging in the hallway period. The LaSalle Plan includes the relocation of the Colonel Ward Pumping Station, which would then become a (proposed) industrial heritage museum. A beautiful midway runs right through the center of the park and the interruptive park road becomes a winding boulevard that takes visitors past all of the useful amenities. The sloping ‘naturalized shoreline’ sounds wonderful… much nicer than that steel wall that is currently in use. And the ‘multi-purpose lakefront structure’ sounds useful since there really are no useful structures other than the outdoor pavilion, which is incorporated into this rendering. Even Riverwak is incorporated into this functional waterfront park. There are well-positioned playing fields and a picnic grove and even scattered parking lots that you would find at nature-minded state parks. Inland water pools are shown too.
This sounds like just about the best waterfront access one could possibly imagine. And with the redesign of the Peace Bridge? This plan should be revisited because there was obviously a lot of well-spent time and energy that went into it.