Lakewood to Renovate Wagar and Cove Parks, Seeks Design Firm for Job

Lakewood officials are searching for local design firms to help them overhaul two popular neighborhood parks. The city's park improvement strategy, which kicked off in 2010, includes upgrades to nearly all of the city’s 17 parks, but city planner Michelle Nochta said in a statement this week that a complete renovation of Cove and Wagar Parks is in the works for 2016.

Nochta said the city is currently seeking proposals for both properties. In the design proposals, the city is looking for six key elements that they feel will help set Lakewood’s parks apart and make them as valuable to the community as possible: Safety, quality of facilities, access, natural resources, cultural resources, and year-round use.

“We’re looking for a design firm to reimagine Cove and Wagar parks,” said Nochta. “We have a strong feel for what the community wants, and in Lakewood, there is a genuine appreciation of public spaces. This project will help us realize our goals to provide first rate park facilities for all to enjoy.”

The city’s statement said the proposals’ elements of thoughtful design, efficiency, longevity, harmony between design elements, and topography should ideally come together “effortlessly”.

Since 2010, the City of Lakewood has heavily invested into its parks systems while still remaining conscious about budgets and resources. The city has also approved a complete overhaul of the Kid’s Cove portion of the city’s largest park, Lakewood Park. Construction is set to begin on that project in the fall.