Community members are working to transform Margaret T. Hance Park into a site that will attract more Phoenix residents to the area over the next 10 years at a cost of more than $100 million.
Marcia Karasek, director of the Hance Park Conservancy, presented ideas for improving the park at the Art d’Core Gala on March 10. A city council subcommittee heard those plans last month.
According to Karasek, the completion of the Interstate 10 tore apart the neighborhoods surrounding the space the park now occupies. Karasek said as a result of this, the federal government invested $100 million over the years into building Hance Park. But the park never took off because it wasn’t designed well, she said.
“When downtown really declined, this became kind of an empty place that attracted homeless people and drug dealers, and a few neighborhood people,” Karasek said. “It was a beautiful place, but it was never really activated.”
In 2011, the city of Phoenix issued a request for proposals for a redesign of the park and attracted a company called !melk, which developed an award-winning master plan for the 32-acre park.
The master plan includes a solar panel “cloud” structure that will stretch over the Central Avenue Bridge and provide a portion of the park’s power. The north quadrant of the Central Avenue Bridge will house two 4,000-square-foot retail spaces on each end. Karasek said the city will submit a request for proposals for a restaurant or entertainment venue to take over the fire station located on the east side of the southeast quadrant.
The master plan is expected to cost $117.8 million, to be paid for through a private-public partnership. The first phase of the plan, which will involve implementation of the cloud and the other structures on the north side of the Central Avenue Bridge, is expected to cost $35 million, park architect Philip Weddle told a city subcommittee last month.
The southern side of the bridge is currently used for musical events. Karasek said part of the plan is to make it more friendly for smaller performances.
“Instead of being a gap where the highway was, it’s now linking uptown and midtown arts district with downtown and the Roosevelt Arts District,” Karasek said.
Karasek said several community organizations that are based around the park, including The Irish Cultural Center and the Phoenix Center for the Arts, collaborated with the Hance Park Conservancy to develop the plans for the park. Several members of these organizations expressed support for the plans, saying the increased foot traffic in the park would help.
Karasek emphasized the importance of great parks and discussed what the restoration of Hance Park would do for the city of Phoenix.
“This kind of gentrification benefits everyone because it’s a public space that everyone has access to,” Karasek said.
Lauren Henschen, deputy director of the Phoenix Center for the Arts said the increased traffic in the area would help alleviate some of the crime that occurs in the park. She said these plans were created using community feedback.
“Dedicating time and money will help make the park better for everyone,” Henschen said.
Joseph Benesh, the director of the Phoenix Center for the Arts, said hopefully a restored Hance Park will give Phoenix a greater sense of itself as not just a city, but a cultural hub.
“It will give the people of Phoenix pride for what Phoenix is,” Benesh said.
Contact the reporter at Daniel.Perle@asu.edu.
