Chattanooga Reveals Plans For Reimagined Montague Park
After a monthslong planning process, Chattanooga leaders unveiled a new vision for Montague Park on Wednesday that they expect will foster harmony between the two long-term leaseholders and uplift an area poised for growth.
"I think they've uncorked the next great Southern urban park, and I did not expect that when we started," Parks Administrator Scott Martin said in an interview last week. "I did not see this coming, and now I can't get it out of my mind."
At about 46 acres, Montague Park is the largest piece of green space in the city's urban core, Martin said, and it was one of the original parks proposed in a 1911 plan developed for Chattanooga by landscape architect John Nolen.
Montague Park has two occupants: Sculpture Fields, a 33-acre outdoor art museum that features large-scale sculptures from around the world, and the Chattanooga Football Club Foundation, which has about 13 acres at the site for athletic programming, including youth sports.
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Vision Plan For Montague Park Unveiled
Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors joined Chattanooga Design Studio, Montague Sculpture Fields, Chattanooga Football Club Foundation, Clinicos Medicos, landscape architects with Reed Hilderbrand and HK Architects and the community, to unveil the vision plan for Montague Park.
The Montague Park Vision Plan is "a collaborative and forward-looking plan that elevates Chattanooga's largest downtown park as a beautiful, accessible, unified, and animated public space, creating a premiere destination for residents and visitors. The vision promotes elements of art & culture, recreation & diversity, community and health.
"The proposal enhances the spaces of the park's two primary users, Sculpture Fields at Montague Park and the Chattanooga Football Club Foundation. The Heart and Front Porch adds new programs and community uses, unifying the property into a cohesive public space that will bring ecology, art, food, and neighborhoods together."
Mayor Tim Kelly said, "The Montague Park Vision Plan is transformational – intentionally designed to unleash the unifying forces of entertainment, sports, and food amidst greenscaping that is quintessentially Chattanoogan. Montague will become the place for community building in the heart of Chattanooga and one of America's most envied urban parks."
"I can't think of another top 100 US city with a world-class outdoor art non-profit, local food leaders, community health champions, and a youth sports foundation together building an iconic public park and garden," said Scott Martin, administrator for Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors. "This project is Chattanooga rediscovering its capacity to work at scale, building a city around world-class public parks and green spaces. Imagine Chattanooga in 50 years with this extraordinary public garden park (and its surrounding neighborhoods) as one of our iconic landmarks - on par with Ruby Falls, Rock City, the Aquarium, and the Riverpark. This park will be a demonstration of how our nation's best cities build their futures around beautiful and fun public green spaces."
A renewed Sculpture Fields, an outdoor sculpture park with a collection of over 50 works by world-renowned artists, builds on the legacy and vision of the late John Henry to elevate what started as a grassroots effort in 2006 to create a sculpture park of international stature. Enhanced planting and pathways, and new ravines and bridges, provide an arboretum-like setting with outdoor 'garden galleries' for experiencing art in the landscape. A new event lawn and sculptural stage provides a generous and flexible space for events and community programming. Expanded facilities for the Chattanooga Football Club Foundation, a non-profit community football club serving socio-economically diverse local youth, include three new artificial play fields with lighting, a range of spectator seating areas, and support facilities, including locker rooms, CrossFit studio, and vending space. The fields, which will be open for community use outside of practice times, can also serve as flexible space for larger and periodic community events programming.
The Heart, a new space in the center of the park with an emphasis on exploration and immersion, will include play elements like slides, swings, nature play, and scrambles for a range of ages and abilities. Trails and overlook bridges will bring visitors up, down, and across new landforms with views of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and downtown.
The Community Front Porch, a new main entrance and civic edge along Polk Street, serves as a 'park within a park', an everyday destination for neighbors and visitors. A series of pavilions under shaded arbors running the length of the park will provide seating, picnic, BBQ areas, splash pad, outdoor games, restrooms, market space, and maintenance/volunteer support facilities.
"The Vision Plan brings together the park's major programs and activates the interstitial spaces of the park to complement these uses with other elements essential to engaging the neighbors and residents of Chattanooga." said John Kett, managing principal of Reed Hilderbrand.
The Montague Park vision falls in line with the recently passed Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Plan (POP), which provides specific guidance to measurably improve the community's health, wellness, landscape, and economy through improved public parks. Montague Park's new plan intentionally builds on three of those top POP recommendations. First, before building new parks, the city should take care of the existing parks, improving their beauty, care, and functionality. Second, make park improvements possible by working in partnership with community leaders and organizations. Third, create an arboretum that brings the beauty of Tennessee Valley plant communities into our downtown core. Doing so, will improve air quality, add shade, and bring "natural air conditioning" through forests that help mitigate the impacts of the heat island felt most accurately in our most distressed communities and neighborhoods, it was stated.
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