Crossing Over: Bridge Park builds community connection
In Dublin, Ohio, an ambitious new development is taking shape – a project with the potential to literally and figuratively remake the city’s development landscape. The project is Bridge Park, a $350 million mixed-use development that is the central component of a larger 1,100-acre Bridge Street District development plan. The project is the first step in a comprehensive master-planned vision that was formally approved by Dublin’s City Council in 2010.
Construction began in summer 2015 on the first phase of Bridge Park, which occupies a 30-acre swath of land along the Scioto River. Bridge Park’s urban aesthetic will create a walkable riverfront neighborhood that seamlessly blends retail and residential components. Phase One includes 364 residential units, 230,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant, and two new parking garages. With construction underway, Bridge Park is a hot-spot for top-tier tenants, including Ohio-based Cameron Mitchell Restaurants’ The Avenue and Cap City restaurants, 3 Palms Pizzeria, Hosket Ulen Insurance Agency and Anthony Vince’ Nail Salon, with more tenants to be announced in the coming weeks.
The finished project will include 850 apartment-style residences and 150 condominium homes–a total of more than 1.1 million sq. ft. of residential space, approximately 373,000 sq. ft. of Class A Office, 109,000 sq. ft. of service retail, 115,000 sq. ft. of restaurant, a 50-key boutique hotel, and a 500-seat Events Center. Four additional parking garages will be added (for a total of six) that, in conjunction with on-street parking, will provide 3,700 available spaces.
While the scale and scope of Bridge Park is noteworthy, perhaps the project’s most distinctive feature is a new $19 million pedestrian bridge that spans across the Scioto River. With a completion date scheduled for 2019, the bridge seems destined to become a dramatic and iconic symbol of the project. The connectivity and convenient access provided by the new bridge is one of several strategic decisions designed to enhance waterfront access and improve existing sight lines.
Along with repositioning Riverside Drive to accommodate a new 12-acre riverfront park space, the result is an array of civic spaces and public amenities that elevates the Scioto River waterfront from an underutilized and largely ignored space into a newly vital community asset. Throughout the project, design features both significant and subtle acknowledge the fact that Bridge Park is designed to be used for the full spectrum of social and commercial activities. Retail avenues open out onto captivating views of the river beyond, and a newly built bike path connects to a larger regional bike trail already in place.
Forging connections
It’s no secret that Dublin city planners see Bridge Park as a potential game-changer. Bridge Park is designed to be the same kind of dynamic central destination: the missing ingredient in a recipe for social and commercial success that already includes some key pieces. Dublin’s economic strength and favorable demographics, as well as a rich cultural history and strong civic identity are all working in the city’s favor. If Bridge Park can capitalize on those assets while serving as the mixed-use urban hub that Dublin has been missing, both the city and the project will benefit.
To its credit, The City of Dublin has recognized the project’s promise and potential and has made a correspondingly significant investment of approximately $100 million in related infrastructure improvements and upgrades. Those upgrades include a new roundabout intersecting with SR-161 to the south, and an additional $11 million spent on roadwork improvements inside Bridge Park, and the construction of new roadway connectors I-270 and other major regional arteries. For its part, Crawford Hoying has been working closely with civic officials and community representatives throughout the design and development process to ensure that Bridge Park fits seamlessly into the development vision outlined in the original City Council Bridge Street Corridor Vision Statement.
In addition to a development with the potential to provide the urban centerpiece the city is currently missing, Bridge Park has the potential to forge an important connection between Dublin’s existing historic downtown district and the emerging Bridge Street Corridor. Bridge Street itself is within walking distance of Dublin’s existing retail and restaurant options.
Progress and potential
From an aesthetic standpoint, Bridge Park exhibits an architectural identity designed to reinforce its intended status as Dublin’s urban centerpiece, with a mix of styles and materials thoughtfully presented to help convey the feel of a place that has evolved naturally over time. With an original plan created by Elkus Manfredi, design architect MoodyŸNolan has seamless stepped in to make it a point to provide each residential building with its own unique design style. Even the available amenities that each residence offers varies from one building to the next further establishing the sense of variety and differentiation. That same concept appears in another context: each of the outdoor community spaces in Bridge Park’s first phase has its own unique “theme.”
Phase One remains on track to open its doors in fourth quarter 2016. Bridge Park’s second phase, which includes a hotel, an events center, and an office building, has also broken ground and will be completed in the third quarter of 2017. In Dublin–and across Central Ohio–anticipation is building for the completion of a one-of-a-kind project that promises to not only present an extraordinary new mixed-use community asset, but to forge and revitalize critical civic connections in the process.