Planning & Analysis Category

East Redmond Corridor - MERIT AWARD
The Berger Partnership PS

Project Description:
In the 1970s, the City of Redmond began acquiring a collection of properties along the Bear and Evans Creek valleys, straddling the boundaries of Redmond and unincorporated King County. Today the East Redmond Corridor (ERC) Master Plan envisions these seven properties as a unified system of parks and trails to meet the city's current and future recreational needs, establish buffers between the increasingly dense city and rural edges, restore wetland habitats along the salmon-bearing creeks and make connections to existing regional trails.

Key project influences included the corridor's rich history, the long-neglected but again valued creeks, and aggressive growth within the city spreading to the once-rural hills to the east (including highway traffic that crosses or parallels the corridor). Led by The Berger Partnership PS, the ERC Master Plan addresses these issues by providing an overarching vision for the corridor, site master plans for five undeveloped park properties, and a plan update for one of two existing parks. The adoption of this plan reframes the city's goals from a series of individual parks connected by a trail, to a vision of a larger open space and habitat corridor providing seven unique yet complimentary park experiences.

The parks are unified by corridor-wide concepts and design elements applied at all of the sites, as well as an interconnecting trail system. Collectively, each element helps to define the character of the corridor and create a unique and recognizable identity.

Overall corridor concepts include:

• Historical Engagement – Connecting with history and historic remnants on the site.

• Character and Site Elements – Embracing an agricultural vernacular for new elements to complement the existing.

• Trails – A hierarchy of trails and experiences (for bikes, pedestrians and equestrians) weave the corridor and parks together.

• Environmental Engagement – Rich ecology provides a diversity of experiences to learn from and inspire.

• Plant Collection – The human-altered landscape embraces areas of inspired plantings as a form of wayfinding and aesthetic enrichment.

The envisioned parkland corridor can be enjoyed in a one-day bike ride or endless visits to any one of the individual parks, where opportunities for exercise, play, refuge and discovery abound.

Jury Comments:
This is an exemplary master plan document. The city's proactive planning sets forth a long term strategy for the protection of this land along a series of streams. It is refreshing to see a conventional graphic presentation that is clear and elegant. This is a comprehensive plan that is sensitive to cultural, environmental, and social issues. The project history and process unfolds in a thoughtful and concise narrative. The master plan deploys short term and long term interventions. No matter how many of the parks and trails are implemented, the land from development has been protected from development. This is a blueprint for success.