LK Architecture | Chester I. Lewis Park

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Chester I. Lewis Park – Wichita, KS

Description:

The renovation of the Chester I. Lewis Memorial Park will transform the existing understated urban pocket park into a new central celebration plaza to memorialize the life and influence of Chester I. Lewis, a civil rights and community leader in the City of Wichita. With the demolition of an adjacent building, the approximately $1.3 million, one-acre park will include multiple scaled seating areas as well as a larger flexible organizing space for larger rallies and musical performances in the park. The alternating ground planes and paving finishes, along with landscaping and integrated art will offer a respite from the hardscape of the urban core of the city while also creating a festive environment to enhance the postcard look of historic Douglas Avenue in downtown Wichita. The park will accommodate new commercial and restaurant businesses found in the adjacent buildings on three sides of the park including the alley. It will include a new pedestrian promenade, food trucks and an access entry to the adjacent medical school complex abutting the rear of the park. A central turf component will provide visitors with softscape to relax and contemplate, while the varying wood boardwalk, and granulated granite finishes offer alternative textures and supple ground planes to the traditional paver surfaces in the park. A significant component of the park will be the integrated art solutions that will tell the story of Chester I. Lewis. The resultant park design, community engagement and artist selection processes will involve a great range of input and influence from multiple community and municipal stakeholder groups including the Wichita Branch of the NAACP, TKAAM (The Kansas African American Museum), The Wichita African American Council of Elders, the Mayor’s Youth Council, Wichita Design Council, Wichita District Advisory Boards, Wichita City Council, Wichita Community Foundation, Wichita Downtown Development Corporation, as well as the grand daughter of Chester I Lewis. Ultimately, the Chester I. Lewis memorial Park will become a point of interest on the Kansas African American History Trail along with the Dockum Sit-in Memorial, The Red Bud Trail Memorial, the Nicodemus National Historic Site and The Brown vs Topeka Board of Education National Historic Site.

Owner

City of Wichita
Wichita, Kansas