“There will be nothing like this in Southeast Iowa, or perhaps in the state!” Gregg Mandsager, City Administrator of West Burlington is speaking about a new trailhead park designed by two Urban Planning graduate students, Farnaz Fatahi and Jovana Kolašinac. The pair have earned a reputation for aesthetically inventive plans, creative solutions, and exceeding expectations.
Mandsager and his team at the City of West Burlington, one of IISC’s partners this year, presented them a challenge: Create a trailhead park from an empty lot located on a major road with a drainage ditch running through it. The park should include basic amenities, such as a shelter, a map, a water fountain, and a bike station. And please make it truly unique!
A unique opportunity
“We realized the opportunity we had for placemaking,” says Mandsager of the project committee’s request to think outside the box, adding that he wanted it “to stand out and attract residents and visitors alike.”
Before meeting with the committee, Fatahi and Kolašinac created a brief that included existing physical details of the site, which they retrieved largely from Google Earth, and a catalog of visual examples that represented the look and feel they were imagining. The “mood board” was effective.
“When we started our first meeting, there was some tension,” recalls Kolašinac. “But after we shared our ideas, everyone calmed down. They liked what they saw and gave us permission to keep going.”