CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – The South Norfolk neighborhood has a brand-new community park and it’s all thanks to a local nonprofit and a group of architects.
It’s located at the ForKids Landmark Center building. Crews were out at the site all day on Friday, Oct. 4, working to build the park in a day.
“[We’re] just super excited to see this to come to be, to continue to add artwork in and around the Landmark Center, to really create it as a community asset and public space that we envisioned when we moved in three years ago now,” SAID Bill Young, the Chief Innovation Officer at ForKids.
ForKids is a local nonprofit that works with families experiencing homelessness.
Young explained the project was in partnership with volunteers from the local chapter of the American Institue of Architects (AIA).
“They’ve been building in advance at the makerspace to get all the component parts together. MEB contractors is out here with a big team to do the install, so we’ll get all done in a day,” Young said.
Project lead Tony Lin, with AIA Coastal Virginia, explained crews were able to get it done because volunteers have been working for over two months to prepare by painting, sanding and assembling the pieces included in the park.
“What I really enjoy is being able to just work with a lot of different people and towards, like a shared vision of realizing this pop-up park project,” Lin said.
Young explains the theme of the project is centered around butterflies. It features a new butterfly installation in front of the building, a mural with interactive flower pieces on the building’s side and a playground with a caterpillar and colorful canopy behind the building.
“I think it’s just what a healthy community is. A healthy community has places where people can come together. A healthy community has beautiful things. A healthy community has this idea, I think, of a vision of hope for what the future can look like, and we’re just excited to be a part of that,” Young said.
There will be an official ribbon cutting for the park on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 12:30 p.m.