The Neighborhood New Greenspace

Ground broken for Rodney Cook Sr. Park on Westside

Agroundbreaking ceremony was held May 19 for the $45 million Rodney Cook Sr. Park on the city’s Westside.

The 16-acre park, which will be located in Vine City, began as a way to ease flooding issues in the neighborhoods, but has morphed into an active space that will also honor Civil Rights-era leaders and include a towering sculpture called the Peace Column.

Located along Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, the park will include a pond system similar to the one in Historic Fourth Ward Park that collects stormwater and alleviates much of the flooding that has plagued the area.

But the flooding mitigation is just one element of the greenspace, which will also include a splash-pad, a playground, a performance plaza, a picnic pavilion, courts for multi-use sports, a fitness area, a boardwalk, an overlook and terraced pools.

The National Monuments Foundation, which created the Millennium Gate in Atlantic Station and is headed by the son of the park’s namesake, Rodney Cook Jr., has raised money for the Peace Column and “Peace Pantheon.” The column will be topped by a statue of Chief Tomochichi, the Native American who helped co-found the state of Georgia.

To pay tribute to the City of Atlanta being the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement, the park will include 18 statues of Georgia civil rights leaders and peacemakers, as well as the Dr. C.T. Vivian Library of African American Literature.

The Trust for Public Land and its design consultant firm, Andropogon, in collaboration with the City of Atlanta, worked with several stakeholders and the community to finalize the plan design. In addition, The Trust for Public Land is raising $12.7 million from the private sector for the construction and design of the greenspace. With lead gifts from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, and support from other notable family and corporate foundations, The Trust for Public Land is on track to complete fundraising for the project by the end of September.

Cook Sr., who died in 2013, was a city alderman and member of the Georgia House of Representatives who was active in the Civil Rights Movement, famously having a cross burned on his front lawn by the Ku Klux Klan after he introduced legislation to desegregate white neighborhoods in the city.

The park is set to open in spring 2018.