Alta Plaza gets more love

ON THE HEELS of news that one of Alta Plaza Park’s neighbors — William Benjamin Bobo of 2580 Clay Street — left $3.2 million in his estate for more benches, now comes a report of another neighbor’s bequest to the park.

Park leaders learned over the weekend that Jeanette Ann Goldstein, who resided a block away at 2379 Jackson, has left $50,000 to Alta Plaza in her will. They were a bit surprised, since Goldstein, like Bobo, had not contributed to the park while alive.

Now the question becomes what to do with it.

Once the city Parks and Recreation Department decided that Alta Plaza couldn’t reasonably add $3.2 million of benches, 60 percent of the money was siphoned to other uses. Likewise, the Parks Alliance will take a cut of the latest donation.

Anita Denz, the self-described “chief cook and bottle washer” of Friends of Alta Plaza, said she is huddling with other supporters to decide which element of the park master plan developed by Miller Co. Landscape Architects should be tackled next.

“We well may lobby for the Central Plaza enhancement of the 2016 master plan,” Denz said. Park leaders have long had a hankering to create a proper plaza at the top of Alta Plaza.

The master plan offers this description of a new Central Plaza:

At the top of the grand stair is a flat asphalt space between the playground and multi-use court. This underutilized area presents an opportunity for park visitors to gather, socialize, relax and take in the view south across the city. Currently there are no benches in this space. At public meetings community members voiced a need for seating where they can stop and sit or stretch after walking or jogging up the steep terraces. The proposed Central Plaza will provide eight new benches in the central space at the top of the grand stair and a long curved wood bench at the north end of the plaza.

The playground fence would be moved to the inside of the planting area, which will be replanted with Washingtonia filibusta Palm trees and a mix of native and climate-adapted flowering perennials. Relocating the playground fence to the inside of the planting area will protect the plants from the wear and tear of playground activities, and will create a planting buffer between the Central Plaza and playground. An expanded planting area on the east side of the Central Plaza will be planted to match, symmetrically framing the new plaza space and providing a similar buffer between the Central Plaza and multi-use court.

The seating area with planting, benches and unit pavers will be punctuated at the north end of the plaza by a curved wooden bench with circular trellis overhead. Flowering vines and flowering trees will frame the curved seating area, and a patch of turf will create a softer space in front of the trellis. The new seating opportunities in the Central Plaza will utilize the existing area to accommodate individual and social seating in a central setting where park visitors can look south down the Pierce Street axis of the city.

Ben Bobo and Jeanette Goldstein both lived within a few houses of Alta Plaza, but probably never knew each other. Now their memorial gifts may come together to create something special at the top of the park.