Nat Turner Park

The Trust for Public Land retained Hatch Mott MacDonald to provide services to help the City of Newark transform a 9 acre lot, which has been underutilized since the City acquired it in the 1970s, into a safe, vibrant, well-used park that will serve the City—including nearly 7,000 neighborhood children. HMM provided an array of environmental, design, and engineering services in support of this Brownfield redevelopment project.

Project Highlights:

• The park includes a turf multi-sports field, a resilient surface running track, an amphitheater, a playground, a seating area with a metal arbor, a multi-use area, walking paths, park benches, trashy receptacles, a decorative metal perimeter fence, metal entrance arches, over 200 trees, and passive natural lawn areas
• The design utilizes pulse start metal halide light fixtures that are full cut-off design, which reduces glare by directing the majority of the light toward the ground plane with virtually no light spillage above the horizontal plane of the lens
• The combined efforts of HMM's team of environmental and design professionals resulted in the development and implementation of a remedial strategy which addressed environmental issues in a cost and time efficient manner, while ensuring the protection of human health and the environment
• HMM's sustainability-focused design for the park included nearly 240 trees and other native plant species to mitigate potential urban heat island effects
• HMM incorporated extensive plantings into the active recreational facility which help improve air quality through the removal of particulates, reduce runoff, and improve the microclimate by providing shade and evaporative cooking
• HMM's focus on an integrated remedial and site design program allowed for the re-use of historic fill material as an on-site gross fill beneath an environmental cap, thereby keeping over 30,000 cubic yds of material out of landfills and dramatically reducing truck trips