FEATURES – JULY/AUGUST 2009

Turning Point

Norfolk's popular festival park has been revamped and reopens in July as a place for daily downtown enjoyment.

By Bruce Ebert

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Hard as it may be to believe—or admit—we have been making memories, forging friendships, feasting on beer and turkey legs, prowling the decks of tall ships, gaping at fireworks and dancing to the music at Town Point Park for 25 years.

Before then, rotted warehouses lined the Elizabeth River in Downtown Norfolk, but they are either a distant memory or not a memory at all—merely something someone once told us about like British bombardments, yellow fever epidemics and the Great White Fleet.

For a generation now, the 7.5-acre expanse between Waterside and Nauticus, from Waterside Drive to the Elizabeth River, has been Norfolk's grand promenade, the green public square where—almost like a reflex action—we've come on weekends when the weather is nice for the festivals and concerts that are so much a part of La Vida Hampton Roads.

It has also been where we came to mourn the loss of American sailors in the bombing of the Norfolkbased USS Cole and the loss of about 3,000 other Americans in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Now Town Point, the spot where Norfolk originated as a British colonial port in the 1600s, is about to morph again. Beginning July 3, after more than eight months of bulldozing, utility relocations, bulkhead repairs, relandscaping and rebuilding, the redesigned park will be reopened as the backdrop for another generation of memories, beginning with a combined Independence Day-Harborfest extravaganza.

"Up to now, Town Point Park's primary role has been as a festival park," says Karen Scherberger, who, as executive director of Festevents, has led the implementation of the dynamic play component of Norfolk's worklive- play vision for downtown's renaissance. "What we're doing now is creating a park that is also accommodating to casual, everyday use—Frisbee tossing, dog walking, jogging, just reading a book—activities that will get the park in better balance. The emphasis will be on comfort and nice landscaping."

The $11.5-million project funded by the City of Norfolk, Virginia Port Authority and private donations comes in the midst of a decade-long residential construction boom in downtown that has, by design, produced homes lacking private yards. For residents who still need to feel grass under their feet and smell flowers, Town Point is their yard.

If you live or work downtown, you've had opportunities to follow the gradual progress all winter and spring as ground was torn up, water lines and electrical conduits were rerouted, new grass appeared, flowers and shrubs were planted, new trees took root, a decorative fence was erected, and new pathways were formed. Now the park has more color and 60 percent more landscaping.

If you haven't been downtown since late October, prepare to be dazzled. Of the changes you will see when you return, these are among the most significant:

Inevitable Evolution

For Town Point Park, which draws more than 400,000 people per year to almost 100 concerts, festivals and other special events, change was not only an option; it was a necessity brought about partly by forces of nature. Beginning about 10 years ago, while we were giddily sampling wines, stuffing funnel cakes into our mouths, admiring sunsets, and clapping as the band played on, parts of the park were sinking under our feet.

"The park is built on fill," Scherberger reminds. "Millions of people have been there since it opened. It was starting to show." Add to that the "significant sound issues" she says were created when the World Trade Center, across Waterside Drive, was completed. The WTC turned out to be a wall that bounced music from the bandstand into the Freemason neighborhood, at times straining relations between residents and the city.

Knowing that changes would have to come eventually, Scherberger and city officials began to consider how the entire park should evolve in light of downtown's population growth, civic interests, competition for entertainers and music-lovers, and physical limitations.

To understand what possibilities existed for Town Point Park, they and their consultants from MMM Design Group toured some of the best-known and most loved urban parks in the country— among them Chicago's Millennium Park, New York's Bryant Park and Atlanta's Piedmont Park and Olympic Park. They took away not only infrastructural ideas, but a sense of each park's feel and the place each park has in the life of its city's residents.

The new Town Point borrows ideas and has gained inspiration from those well-known parks and fits them into the local context, namely the Elizabeth River waterfront.

"We got good guidelines about space management—providing a Wi-Fi area, shade and breaking down a big space into several small spaces," says Scherberger.

It will be a place where you can feel a part of a throng, or be apart from the maddening crowd. "It will be alive seven days a week," she says. "You won't just be coming for a festival or a concert."

With the redesign come proposals for new events. Though the schedule was rough at press time, plans include:

A Park's Place

New and revived events mean new memories waiting to be hatched. "Town Point is part of what's made Norfolk special," says Ghent Square resident Cheryl Copper. "It was the catalyst for all that has come about since: Nauticus, the cruise ship terminal, MacArthur Center, the revival of Granby Street, the grocery store on Boush ..."

As you walk through the park, keep your eyes on sections of sidewalk built with pavers etched with names—inscriptions written by people helping to finance the rebuilding-rebuilding project by paying $100 for a brick of their own with a tribute to someone dear. Supporters at other levels have their names on new benches, markers and plaques next to trees.

One of the bricks will bear the date May 25, 1990. It was a Friday evening and a Naval officer named Rich was hanging out at a TGIF after-work concert with some friends. One of the friends saw some other friends, which led to two groups of friends forming one big group.

Rich walked over to Sharon, a CPA, and introduced himself. They took a liking to each other, but Rich forgot to get Sharon's phone number. It took him three days to track it down, but he did, and he asked her out—to another event at Town Point Park.

She accepted.

A year later Rich asked Sharon to marry him.

She accepted.

Today, Rich and Sharon Conti think of Town Point Park as much more than trees and grass, more than music and food. (Oddly, the place at Town Point Park where they met was but a few yards from the ground where the city would soon start constructionon Nauticus, the National Maritime Museum—where Rich would later be appointed executive director.)

Beer and wine; music and facepainting; tall ships and fireworks; food and juggling acts—it wouldn't be Town Point Park without them. But there's something else in the water here, and it's not just boats.

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