Oxford Park

Shadley Associates is currently working with the City of Lawrence, the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority, GenCorp and a large team of consultants on the Lawrence Gateway project. While other consultants are responsible for infrastructure improvements to spur economic development of 1.2 million square feet of space in the existing buildings, including a parking area for 975 cars, Shadley Associates is designing a new 2.8 acre park at the intersection of the mill raceways and the Spicket River. The park is Phase III of the Gateway project, and is currently undergoing remediation of contaminated soils and materials in the underground and exterior raceways. This site, located in the former lower courtyard of a removed mill building, has contaminated soils, remnants of raceways and building foundations, and must accommodate several hundred thousand cubic feet of flood storage. The conceptual park plan created by SA accommodates these requirements and creates usable park land that encourages small and large gathering, the interpretation of the former industrial raceways, and connects across the Spicket River to the Lawrence General Hospital via a refurbished pedestrian bridge. The park plan creates an informal sloped performance area, provides universal accessibility through 16 feet of vertical grade change, works with the adjacent new parking area and proposed MassHighway Bridge, and connects with other proposed greenway trails.