IMG 1843 1 CityWalk BHAM is on its way, and it’s not too late to give your input — DeJarvis Leonard presents plans for CityWalk on behalf of ALDOT. Photo by Cody Short for Bham Now.

The first public information sessions for CityWalk BHAM were held yesterday at the Boutwell Auditorium. The sessions were hosted by ALDOT in conjunction with Barge Design Solutions.

In the first 30 minutes of the meeting, there was a presentation on multiple programming ideas and how the CityWalk will be constructed under I20/59. During this time, the public had an opportunity to ask questions to Paul Darr of Barge Design, and DeJarvis Leonard of ALDOT. People were asking about the timeline of the project, operational cleanliness, and how the space can be utilized.

Paul Darr, Landscape Architect for Barge said the CityWalk project is modeled after the famous Bryant Park in New York City.

After the presentation was over, the public participants were able to directly give feedback to Barge and ALDOT. Across the auditorium, there were six presentation tables to give insight into different sectors of programming ideas for the CityWalk. The programs included: Sports and Fitness, Children and Family, Live Entertainment, Arts and Culture, Food and Beverage, and Miscellaneous.

Participants were able to give feedback by ranking each activity under the different program sectors. Each participant also received six stickers to decide which initiatives under all programming ideas they liked the most.

“As designers it’s always a hope that a park project can serve as a catalyst to develop and bring more development activity and economic stimulus to the surrounding area. We would hope that this project will do the same thing. There are a lot of analytics behind parks and how it would help the property around it,” says Darr.