Veneta Rizvic – Digital Producer , St. Louis Business Journal
Leaders from Gateway Design Studio, Beyond Housing and the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District recently celebrated the $5.6 million completion of the Pine Lawn Community Park and Pasadena Boulevard Parkway.
The Pine Lawn Community Park and Pasadena Boulevard Parkway are now complete after a $5.6 million investment.
Pine Lawn Community Park is a new neighborhood park and hub for community activity that now includes a playground, walking paths and a multipurpose field. The space previously was occupied by vacant, derelict buildings, officials said in a statement. The park is on Pasadena Boulevard between Fairchild and Manola avenues in Pine Lawn, along the border with the city of Northwoods.
“This park represents a positive result of various stakeholders working together impacting and improving the Pine Lawn and Northwoods neighborhoods for the benefit of its residents and their families,” Patrick Worzer, owner and principal of Gateway Design Studio, said in a statement.
The project also included the transformation of a half-mile stretch of Pasadena Boulevard into a new walkable street with sidewalks, medians and a roundabout to slow traffic and increase safety, officials said. The park is situated across the streets from the headquarters of nonprofit Beyond Housing, which bought all the abandoned properties to help create the park.
The park project started in 2014 as part of MSD’s Project Clear initiative, which provides grant money to communities to help mitigate and control storm water runoff, officials said. The MSD initiative contributed $3.1 million to the project, while the 24:1 Community Land Trust contributed the remaining $2.5 million.
Gateway Design Studio served as the landscape architect for both the Pasadena Boulevard and community park projects. The company provided concept plans, construction documents and construction phase oversight for the projects. KPFF Engineers, G & W Engineering, Fingerhut Consulting, EM Harris, NuToys Leisure Products and Focal Pointe also worked on the projects.