The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy has worked for years to clean up the Detroit River and the land along it. One of its latest shoreline projects is Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park, where residents and families can spend an afternoon walking the promenade, stopping at the water gardens, resting at a comfort station, and taking in a mix of natural beauty and urban energy.
The site was once contaminated industrial land. To bring its 22 acres back, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation partnered with the Conservancy, and PBA joined Neumann/Smith and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates to engineer the systems behind the park's amenities. PBA came to the project with Detroit park experience, including Beacon Park and Capitol Park.
"Whenever we're doing parks, they're just different," says Eric Graettinger, the PBA electrical engineer who led the park's electrical design. "In this case, it was the open-air building. There are challenges with keeping everything weather appropriate. How bugs get into things, preventing birds from nesting on light fixtures. When you're dealing with the public, you just want robustness to the design. And we delivered that."
Where there was once barren ground, the park now gives Detroiters a place to gather on the river and gives fish, plants, and other wildlife a place to live. PBA is proud to be part of that story.
