Bearden Park in Third Ward, Uptown Charlotte

[nowensone]

Plant the damn fescue already..

[cha]

Serving overseas for the better part of the last year I haven't been able to see home and all the construction and improvements.  I'm very appreciative to all for the picture updates as this is probably the project I'm the most stoked for!  Keep 'em comin and thanks!!  Hopefully this will help give Latta Arcade enough traffic to stay open reasonable hours now,  not the typical uptown hours.  

[carolinagarnet]

^ I think the added apartments are key. Uptown is very walkable, but I'm sure people in First Ward would love to avoid going all the way to 5th Street for a drink (not including Hooligans of course) or Epicentre for food. First Ward becomes a real food desert at night.

[cha]

Well I convinced my girlfriend to take a drive and snap a couple pics of the progress.. it's a little dark but hey its street level!

[Guest]

Well I convinced my girlfriend to take a drive and snap a couple pics of the progress.. it's a little dark but hey its street level!

WOW! Its even more exciting to see this thing from street level! From high up its a little tough to figure out.

[Urbanity]

I like how some of the structure is similar to the plaza of the greenway plaza at the Metropolitan in Midtown.  The city is building a "Charlotte" feel to our parks.

[UptownCLTwalker]

A few more images...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2013 by UptownCLTwalker

[HopHead]

Very cool photos. Thanks for sharing... Welcome to UP!

[nonillogical]

Really nice job that they're doing with the stone and brick work. I'm glad they went with a kind of randomized variety of shades, it will help avoid that overly new look. I wonder what size the trees will be when planted? As nice as this park is going to be, it will look much better in 20+ years when those trees have grown up. 

[nowensone]

Thanks for pics UptownCLTwalker, one thing that stood out is the concrete alongside the brick pavers, with they had done all brick and no concrete, it looks odd and cheaper, oh well, hell of a lot better than what was there.

[dubone]

They originally planned concrete only, so it is a welcome sight to see a central strip of brick pavers.  I think the pavers framed in concrete is somewhat common.

[Urbanity]

While it would have been nice to be all brick - I don't think the concrete and brick pavers look bad.   Hell - being from NY where most of our park path ways are asphalt - I think it looks great!

[nowensone]

I guess, just thinking of impermeable barrier, for which bricks better (slightly), which of course led me to a staggered brick/pebble arrangement to allow water into the ground even more, guess that would be more maintenance as grass/weed seeds took root.  Or 'seed' with moss...    I'll shut up now.

[MilZ]

^ahhh what about drainage and cracking!?!? haha

[nowensone]

Wait, so are you backing up my staggered brick/soil idea??    Yay!  Moot point though, they ain't doing it. 

Edited April 11, 2013 by nowensone

[MilZ]

^On the contrary, I say astroturf walkways with a curb running down the side, collecting in a victorian-style bird bath... or a centrally located outhouse! But yeah moot point

[tozmervo]

I guess, just thinking of impermeable barrier, for which bricks better (slightly), which of course led me to a staggered brick/pebble arrangement to allow water into the ground even more, guess that would be more maintenance as grass/weed seeds took root.  Or 'seed' with moss...    I'll shut up now.

 

My guess is that the brick is laid on concrete and is purely aesthetic in nature. Walkways with that much traffic aren't going to be on sand/gravel bed.

[nowensone]

^ If the base is well compacted that can serve as actual roads, so not an issue of traffic, unless you meant surface-wear, though that would just "age" the walkway faster and make the park even better.

[tozmervo]

More a condition of soil movement over time. It can certainly add some nice character and charm, but I'll be damned if some of the sidewalks in old parks aren't borderline dangerous. Erosion, tree roots, etc can wreak havoc on paths that have to be safe for young, old, strollers, wheelchairs, etc. 

 

(Imagine taking a wheelchair through 4th ward park)

 

Don't get me wrong, I love open grid paving. I wish it was used far more in the US, it could really prevent a lot of flooding and heat island issues. And they may have done it like that for the park construction. It's just a guess that long term maintenance and durability issues led to a concrete underlayment.

[NotSoAlien]

Not sure if anyone is interested but I have some pictures of what it used to look like before it made it this far.

 

Google Earth, has the buildings.

Sorry for the bad quality

[MilZ]

^ Here's another angle from google earth including the bb&t site... Hard to believe all the changes coming in this frame alone

Edited April 14, 2013 by MilZ

[NcSc74]

^ Here's another angle from google earth including the bb&t site... Hard to believe all the changes coming in this frame alone

I remember people posting old pics and postcards of Charlotte before urban renewal. I am curious to see if there are some pics of this angle of the city from that time period. Not just for nostalgia but maybe what for what uptown could look like when these lots get developed.

[grodney]

Grand opening Jun 14, right?

 

 

 

[ah59396]

That "looks" a lot more like a July 14th grand opening.  But how knows.

[michaelef]

Like we mentioned earlier in the thread, once they get the sidewalks and main pavers down, the sod and plants will take no time. We should starting seeing that by the Mid or late May.