Project represents Zakery Steele’s experience under preivous employment. This project was not completed by Sue Steele Landscape Architecture, PLLC.
The 2015 Genesee Valley Park West Master Plan is a comprehensive long-range park rehabilitation plan developed to guide 21st century recreational improvements within the west side of the Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. designed park, which originally opened in 1890. The park’s 800-acres serve as the only public riverfront landscape where users can enjoy naturalistic pastoral tranquility form both sides of the river as Olmsted Sr. envisioned in 1890 when developing the City of Rochester’s comprehensive park plan.
Unlike the open and undeveloped eastern side of the park, the western bank of Genesee Valley Park has continuously provided infrastructure-intensive recreational opportunities since its inception. While necessary for public use, a series of various swimming pools, playgrounds, track and field ovals, ice rinks, boat houses, tennis courts, and baseball fields developed and redeveloped over the last century served to erode the original purpose and vision for the park landscape as a place to experience the bucolic and natural Genesee River flood plain. The plan attempts to reorganize and modernize recreational infrastructure and overall park circulation while reclaiming critical historic design intent of what preeminent Olmsted scholars consider a 19th century public park masterwork. The result is a vision to remove barriers, alter sight lines and circulation routes, and provide higher quality, equitable, and multi-generational recreational opportunities.
*Zakery Steele served as Project Manager and led all phases of the project (under previous employment).
Services
Cultural Landscape Report
Park Master Plan
Historic Rehabilitation
Recreation Planning
Boathouse Concept Design
Project Team
Bayer Landscape Architecture
*Zakery Steele participated on this project under previous employment at Bayer Landscape Architecture
LaBella Associates (Conceptual Architecture)
Bero Architecture (Katie Eggers-Comeau, Preservation)
Moffatt & Nichol (Riverfront Engineering)
Dr. Charles Beverage (Olmsted Scholar)
Client
City of Rochester, New York