Honor Award Winner
Project Name: Vilas Park Master Plan
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Design Team: MSA Professional Services
Henry Vilas Park, referred to as Vilas Park, at 45.67 acres, is one of Madison’s oldest parks, dating to the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association era, initially designed in 1905 by landscape architect, O.C. Simonds. The Vilas Park Master Plan seeks to strike a necessary balance between design best practices, the known needs of a large and ever-expanding park system, and the myriad of often overlapping interests expressed through community input meetings, stakeholder group sessions, public comment, and neighborhood associations. Since public engagement would play a key role in the development of the master plan, the development of a public engagement strategy was guided and informed by the City of Madison’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiative (RESJI) Comprehensive Tool.
The landscape architect was the project manager for a team of landscape architects, architects, traffic, and civil engineers. The landscape architects led all meetings under the RESJI process, including public information meetings and coordination with park/city staff. In-depth analysis of the site, as well as an inventory of over 500 trees that were identified, categorized, and photographed and placed in GIS, were all developed by the landscape architects. The Master Plan Report and all diagrams were created by the landscape architect.
Vilas Park is a regional destination and home to Henry Vilas Zoo (not included in master plan). The park has the highest visitation numbers in the City of Madison Park system. It has been over 100 years since O.C. Simonds’ original plan for the park that a full plan has been developed. In the 1970s, the city prepared visual plans that were never adopted. This master plan places a major focus on traditional uses, inclusionary principles, and current needs that were not addressed previously. The resulting plan provides a road map to the future for improvements that consider appropriate locations, park uses, resource protection, environmental awareness, and safe public space for all. The document emphasizes the importance of inclusion; all pedestrian connectivity meets or exceeds guidelines and safe access for alternative transportation such as bikes, foot traffic, and school buses take precedent. The master plan addresses the importance of maintaining and improving the natural resources of the site.
The immense undertaking of the Vilas Park Master Plan began in 2019. The project was faced with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) which resulted in adapting to new forms of outreach and team coordination that occurred seamlessly due to the landscape architect’s facilitation capabilities. The RESJI process provided the opportunity for the inclusion of all of Madison’s community members to hear voices and celebrate the next 100 years of Vilas Park as an important open space for all. The landscape architect engaged traditional voices to plan future improvements to the park with an understanding of the values of the Ho-Chunk Nation for this sacred site.