Items tagged with 'Lincoln Park'

The draft plan for the future of Albany's Lincoln Park is set to be unveiled next month

Lincoln_Park_master_plan_2018-December_amphiteater.jpg

The draft version of the new master plan for Albany's Lincoln Park will be unveiled at a public meeting January 15. Press release blurbage:

Mayor Kathy Sheehan, the City of Albany Department of Planning & Development, and STIMSON Studio Landscape Architects will host a meeting to present the community with a draft master plan and provide an opportunity to discuss their ideas for preserving and improving Lincoln Park, and to learn more about the master planning process.
This is an exciting opportunity for residents, visitors, and community organizations to shape Lincoln Park's future and help to prioritize potential projects and initiatives being evaluated within the Park. The ideas presented at this meeting will be based on the feedback provided from the October 9, November 14, and December 4 design input community meetings.

At that December public input meeting, the team from Stimson presented a handful of ideas for the park that seemed to get a warm reception from the crowd, including a new trail around the park, more and better basketball courts, an amphitheater, and a giant slide playground.

One of the other big items in the park's future is a probably replacement of aging Lincoln Park Pool. At the public meetings for this master plan, the crowds very much seemed to be in favor of replacing it with something similar to what's there now. And this week the city of Albany was awarded $262,500 by the state to put toward the planning and design a pool replacement.

This next Lincoln Park master plan meeting is Tuesday, January 15 at 6 pm in the Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology (TOAST) auditorium (94 Delaware Ave). If you enter the school from the parking lot off Delaware, the auditorium is right there.

Earlier
+ A few of the ideas that are in the mix for the future of Albany's Lincoln Park
+ The plan for a sewer facility in Lincoln Park is set to move forward next year -- with a significant change

A few of the ideas that are in the mix for the future of Albany's Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park master plan 2018-December table planning

What should Albany's Lincoln Park look like five years from now? Or 10 years from now? Or even 50 years from now?

That's the question at the center of the ongoing process to develop a master plan for the city's second largest park.

"This is an iterative process, this is about asking you what you want," mayor Kathy Sheehan told the crowd at a public planning meeting at TOAST Elementary Tuesday evening. "And creating a vision for a park that will live on for decades -- and be a vision for the park that reflects the community."

The city has hired a landscape architecture firm out of Boston to help it develop this plan. On Tuesday the firm's reps presented a few ideas they have in mind, and members of the public highlighted what they like so far...

(there's more)

The plan for a sewer facility in Lincoln Park is set to move forward next year -- with a significant change

Beaver Creek Clean River Project 2018-11-27 site plan cropped

The plan for the Beaver Creek Clean River Project -- the sewer facility planned for Albany's Lincoln Park that prompted an upswell of community skepticism this past spring -- has changed, officials announced at a public meeting Tuesday evening at TOAST Elementary.

The project still includes a new sewer facility and park space in the old Beaver Creek ravine, but engineers have made a significant design change that officials say will result in both a smaller footprint and smaller impact.

Here's what's up.

(there's more)

Here's another chance to offer suggestions on the future of Albany's Lincoln Park

Lincoln_Park_planning_meeting_2018-10-09_group_table_v2

From October's public planning session.

The city of Albany has another public meeting coming up to talk about the future of Lincoln Park.

City officials and the consultants working on a master plan for the park will be at the Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology (TOAST) December 4.

This is a follow-up meeting to two meetings earlier this fall to gather input about the future direction of the park. Among the ideas that came up during a meeting at Hackett Middle School in October: better neighborhood connections, better walking paths, better lighting, improved fitness facilities, a new playground, more attention paid to landscaping, more winter activities, maybe a dog park.

Another topic at the meeting: People's preferences for the shape/type of the next Lincoln Park pool.

The city has hired the landscape architecture studio Stimson to help with the master plan. Back in October the team said it would be presenting a collection of options based on that input at this meeting. (The final master plan proposal is scheduled for a public meeting January 15 at TOAST.)

This public meeting is Tuesday, December 4 in the cafeteria of TOAST (94 Delaware Ave) at 7 pm.

Beaver Creek Clean River Project
A reminder that the next public meeting for the Beaver Creek Clean River Project -- the sewer facility / public garden project planned for the Beaver Creek ravine in Lincoln Park -- is this Tuesday, November 27 at TOAST at 6:30 pm.

Here's another chance to offer input on the future of Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park planning meeting 2018-10-09_pool

One of the exercises from the October 9 meeting.

The city of Albany is in the process of mapping the future of Lincoln Park, and it's added a second opportunity provide ideas.

There will be a public meeting for the Lincoln Park Master Plan November 14 from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Albany Housing Authority Atrium and Community Room (200 South Pearl Street). City officials and the consultants working on the plan will be there to provide an overview and collect feedback.

Note: "This meeting will be identical in structure and opportunity for input as the community meeting that was held on October 9." (A city official said this week the second meeting was added after the city heard from many people who wanted to be at the October 9 meeting but weren't able to make it.)

Here's a recap of that October 9 meeting and a bunch of ideas that bubbled up during it. Among the things people said they'd like to see: better neighborhood connections, better walking paths, improved lighting, a new playground, and maybe a dog park.

Also at that meeting: Mayor Kathy Sheehan said the city is committed to the Lincoln Park Pool. The pool is old, leaky, and mostly likely needs to be replaced.

Next steps
+ The consultancy working the city on the Lincoln Park plan is scheduled to present a handful of proposals to the public at meeting December 4. (Place and time TBD.)
+ The final master plan is expected to be ready for public presentation January 15. (Place and time TBD.)

Talking about the future of Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park ESP background 2018-October

You could understand if Albany's Lincoln Park feels a little left out.

Washington Park gets the events, the tulips, the Instagram pics, the fame. It's the older sibling, the first born, the one who gets all the praise and attention.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Park stands not that far away, roughly the same size, with a loved-but-leaky pool, some sports fields, and an overgrown ravine. It hasn't had any sort of official, overall planning done for it in more than a century.

That's now changing. The city of Albany has started a process to develop a master plan for Lincoln Park. And it's brought in a consulting firm, Stimson, to help things along.

"It's like no other park in Albany and it's really of a huge scale," said Stimson's Glen Valentine at a public meeting to gather input this week at Hackett Middle School. "And we hope that this will lead to those kind of big ideas because people aren't afraid in this forum to speak whatever they want to do, whatever they think is interesting."

Here's an overview of the ideas that have bubbled up so far...

(there's more)

An update on what's in the works for the public portion of that sewer project in Lincoln Park

Beaver Creek Clean River Project sketch

A sketch of what the proposed meditation labyrinth and garden could look like.

Here's a quick update on that reflection and learning garden* that's to go along with the planned Beaver Creek Clean River Project sewer facility in Albany's Lincoln Park.

Here are the city-posted notes from the latest meeting of the community board that's providing input on the project. They include updates from CHA -- the firm working with the city on the project -- about the possible design for the indoor/outdoor classroom, meditation labyrinth, walking paths, play structures, and wetland that would occupy the Beaver Creek ravine.

There are also new renderings of the possible design, and they're probably the fastest way of getting a sense of what's being discussed. So we've clipped a few of them -- see below.

(there's more)

A carnival with a bowl full of ice

lincoln park winter carnival 1930  albany ny

That photo above is from Albany's Lincoln Park in 1930 and shows the large skating rink the city would create there in the park's "bowl" that was the scene of a big winter sports carnival. (A tip of the hat to the Albany Muskrat for highlighting the photo from the Albany Group Archive.)

Here's another pic that give a sense of the crowds the carnival attracted.

What'd they come to see? All sorts of events on ice. There were hockey games, speed skating races, "fancy" skating. And the event brought in stars. Olympic gold medal speed skater Charles Jewtraw and the world record holder for barrel jumping -- Edmond Lamy -- were there in 1927. And in 1928 figure skaters Gladys Lamb and Norval Baptie -- "famous for the airplane spin" -- performed for crowds.

If winter ever decides to be winter again, Albany should really think about bringing back barrel jumping.

Lincoln Park -- from beer, bricks and beavers

lincoln park beaver park plan 1914

A plan for Beaver Park from 1914

By Carl Johnson

Sure, the Washington Park has the Olmstead pedigree, the stately splendor, and a spooky rep as a former graveyard. But the land that became Albany's Lincoln Park has the more interesting history -- a history that includes beer, bricks, borrowing and... the beaver.

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For a decade All Over Albany was a place for interested and interesting people in New York's Capital Region. It was kind of like having a smart, savvy friend who could help you find out what's up. AOA stopped publishing at the end of 2018.

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