Monroe Park: The Rebirth of Cool

The last cool memory I have of Monroe Park involved Dika Newlin and Brooke Saunders banging together old kitchen pans at a Greenpeace rally. There was a giant whale made of sticks and sheets floating limply in the background. Dika was shouting at the top of her feeble lungs, "Save the whales! Save the whales!"

You gotta miss the 90s.

Fast-forward 15 years and it looks like plans are finally being finalized to bring one of Richmond's oldest parks back into play. Minus Dika and the whale.

The Monroe Park Advisory Council has been working with the acclaimed landscape design firm Rhodeside and Harwell to come up with a significant facelift for the park. Thursday night, their final results will be presented to the city's Urban Design Committee (10:00 a.m. at City Hall in the 5th floor conference room). The Planning Commission will view the presentation on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. at City Hall in the 5th floor conference room.

If you can't attend the meeting, you can download a copy of the presentation for a great overview of the ideas and plans being presented.