Check out the redesign plans for Lock 3 coming next year Reporting and writing by Abbey Marshall
L
ock 3 wasn’t meant to be Akron’s central park.
Eighteen years ago, the downtown patch of grass where dilapidated buildings once stood was simply that. But hundreds of concerts and scores of festivals later, Lock 3’s 300,000-some annual visitors have turned it into a beloved site for summer entertainment, lunchtime walks, winter ice skating and more. “I refer to Lock 3 as the city’s most successful pop-up,” says James Hardy, the Deputy Mayor for Integrated Development. “The city acquired and demolished the buildings and parking structure there and erected a temporary entertainment venue as a way to draw people downtown. It was never meant to be a permanent park or venue. It ended up being wildly successful.” As a result, the facilities and infrastructure — or lack thereof — remain relatively the same as they were when the park was thrown together in 2003. Now the city, in partnership with Akron Civic Commons, is preparing design plans for a $10 million reimagining of Lock 3, with construction beginning as early as 2022. “What’s fascinating to me is it’s an incredibly successful concert and event venue, but in all honesty, it doesn’t function well as a park,” says Dan Rice, the president and CEO of Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, the organization that serves as the coordinator of Akron Civic Commons. “People are attracted to water and
20 | The Devil Strip
public spaces. The series of locks right beside each other are now our opportunity to create these incredible public spaces in the heartbeat of the city.” Phase 1 construction to begin fall 2022 At present, the park has a few concrete sidewalks cutting across a largely empty, grassy field with a few picnic tables. While it may be an ideal place to take a brief walk on a lunch break, those conditions do not lend themselves to having people stick around and enjoy the space as a traditional park. The city envisions transforming those 3.3 acres into an oasis of greenery and vegetation amid the downtown office buildings. “One thing we knew before the pandemic was the average commuter worker came to their place of work, parked, went to their desk, often ate lunch in the same building and left,” Hardy says. “We have the opportunity not only to attract people but also retain workers downtown through these amenities.” To mitigate the inaccessibility of the sloping Main Street entryway and steep staircases, preliminary renderings show a tree-lined serpentine walkway that will wind down the hill and open into a reimagined Lock 3. A pathway will lead along the water flowing through the locks and through a “Garden Grove,” lush with perennials and vegetation. Visitors can also enjoy a large, shaded patch of grass for an afternoon picnic or string up a hammock between the trees. Park-wide free Wi-Fi will
be available for remote workers or people in need of internet access. In summer, concert-goers will enjoy performances at a permanent stage optimized for the best viewing experience, instead of the temporary stage the park uses each summer. “We didn’t design the stage location to be the optimal stage location. It was just where it went at the time,” Hardy says. “Rather than the big concrete pad that needs to be torn up every few years and canvas on a temporary stage that needs more maintenance and replacements, we’re doing it correctly in terms of infrastructure.” In winter, Akronites can lace up their skates to enjoy either of the two permanent ice skating rinks that will be installed in front of the stage and next to the Akron Children’s Museum. Lock 3’s annual outdoor ice skating rink is among the largest in Northeast Ohio, but the cost of installation and upkeep each year is about $100,000. With the new design, the rinks will be built into the concrete. In the winter, the rink sides and platforms will be installed, the rink will be flooded and kept frozen by condensate lines built into the park rather than renting a chiller each year. In the summer, those concrete pads will still be usable as park space. The ice rinks are essentially built in to the concrete. In the winter time the rink sides and platforms go in, the rink is flooded and kept cold by condensate lines built in to the concreate. In the summer time they will look and feel like regular ‘ol concreate pads. “The park was never designed to hold an ice rink that large,” Hardy says. “One of the things you’ll see
May 2021 · Vol 9 · Issue #5
in the renderings is creating spaces that are one thing in the summer and another thing in the winter through really good infrastructure. Everything will be built into the park.” OLIN, a Philadelphia-based firm that designed the gardens at the Akron Art Museum, will begin the design phase this month as fundraising efforts continue. The Knight Foundation’s $2 million grant, gifted in September 2020, assisted in kickstarting the project’s timeline, on top of $1.5 million from the city and $1 million from additional donors. So far, fundraisers have secured about $5.1 million of the $10 million needed to complete Phase 1, which includes all the elements described and pictured. City officials are hopeful that funds will be raised by the end of this year and construction can begin immediately following the 2022 summer season. “This is not just a good parks project; this is an economic development project.”
The Lock 3 redesign is part of Reimagining the Civic Commons, an investment project convened by Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition in three Akron neighborhoods and the Towpath trail that connects them that seeks to knit together communities by reimagining public spaces. In that way, Hardy says the Lock 3 redesign is more than a recreation project. “This is not just a good park project, this is an economic development project,” he says. “We’re creating an attraction that builds on the success of the last 18 years and helps out a struggling downtown. Beyond becoming that central park not just for the city but the Towpath; it’s a thedevilstrip.com
