The City of Brainerd has a deep rich history, with what started as a railroad town and a history of industry, and blue-collar workers is now a vibrant city full of redevelopment opportunities and growth. Through every change, special attention is paid to its most valuable natural resource, the Mississippi River. Back in 2017 the city created a Riverfront Committee, who through its strategic planning and visioning efforts, public engagement, and countless hours by the committee and city staff, created the Mississippi Landing Trailhead now known as Lyman P. White Park. The park project, which is fully funded by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Natural Resources (LCCMR), has many unique design characteristics to engage the community members.
Starting from conceptual design WSB worked alongside the Riverfront Committee, city staff, elected and appointed officials to bring the park project to life focusing on future long-term maintenance of amenities and usability planning of each space and feature.
WSB was hired as the consulting firm in charge of leading the City through the visioning process, design, construction, and implementation of the City’s vision for this park space. WSB engaged community leaders, the Riverfront Committee, Park Board, City Council, and City staff throughout the process to garner buy-in of the proposed improvements. Through numerous visioning and design sessions with a select Project Management Team (PMT), Municipal and Landscape Architecture staff at WSB we were able to assist the City in encapsulating its vision for this space. The park’s characteristics include a green space, a promenade, a river overlook, an amphitheater with tiered seating, a canoe and kayak launch, numerous trails and walking paths, a natural children play area, and a restroom facility. As part of the project design, the City also removed the parking lot that was in the existing area. It was then replaced with diagonal parking on the street and proposed street improvements near the park.
During the project process we collaboratively worked to garner support from all stakeholders and came together to prioritize maintaining the allocated budget, timeline for implementation, and vision of the park. The park was fully funded through a grant obtained by the Legislative Citizen’s Commission on Minnesota Resources. The project timeline for the design engineering needed to be completed in approximately 3 months while the visioning of the park was taking place. WSB was able to manage the multiple processes throughout project development and focus on bringing the vision to the park space.
Coupled with a robust design and construction management team at WSB, the park project was delivered on time and under budget. With the left-over funds from the park project, the City was able to amend their grant agreement with the State of Minnesota to allow for Riverbank improvements near the park that WSB designed and is currently in construction, with an anticipated completion date of late June 2024.
The City held the grand opening of the Mississippi Landing Trailhead on June 3, 2023. The park has since then been re-named as Lyman P. White Park to honor one of the original founders of Brainerd and the park space has been dedicated to him.
