The Vision Plan
A unified Montague Park for everyone.
For more than 110 years, Montague Park has seen many visions and iterations of uses come and go. The time has finally come for Chattanooga to have the Montague Park it deserves. Located in the heart of the city, Montague Park will soon serve a place that embodies the ancient notion of Mens sana in corpore sano—a sound mind in a sound body.
The park will not only serve as beautiful setting for recreation, exercise, and play, but also as a place of quiet reflection amongst a world-class sculpture collection, and host to farmer’s markets and other community events.
Polk Street Entrance - The Civic Edge
Because we felt that parks are for people and not for cars, we moved the parking from within the park to the edge. Polk Street, the Park’s primary point of access today, will be modified to accommodate a row of 45º angled parking the length of the park. This configuration will also lend itself to be an ideal set-up for a farmer’s market and other street fair types of events.
In order to provide as wild and as natural of an experience than can be afforded in an urban park, all of the park’s needed architectural programming will be located in a continuous structure—the urban edge—that will serve as a threshold between the urban realm and park realm. All of the park’s necessities will be housed along this structure, portions of which we have dedicated to “The Urban Living Room,” “The Main Entrance and Community Hub,” and “The Spectator Zone.”
“The Urban Living Room”
“The Main Entrance & Community Hub”
“The Spectator Zone”
Sculpture Fields
For more than a decade, Montague Park has been home to the Sculpture Fields, a world-class outdoor sculpture museum envisages by the late sculptor, John Henry. John Henry spent many years sculpting the upper portion of the park in its signature series of rolling berms that not only provide a tranquil setting, but one that is also evocative of the ridges and valleys of the Tennessee River Valley.
The new concept for the Sculpture Fields looks to enhance and complete John Henry’s vision for the park. The enhanced design includes new accessible pathways that will be lined with trees to provide shade and comfort to the visitors to the outdoor museum, and will also include more delineated gallery spaces to lead the visitor on an inspiring journey of discovery.
The southern portion of this part of the Sculpture Fields will also be home to “The Great Lawn,” an outdoor performance and event venue that will accommodate up to 2,000 visitors in a beautiful setting with a monumental sculptural backdrop to be procured by the Sculpture Fields.
All sculptures that currently call the park home will remain, and dozens more sites have been identified to accommodate the growing collection.
Experiencing Sculpture
Stormwater Retention Ravines
To further enhance the existing rolling terrain, a series of ravines will be carved into the landscape adding a new layer of depth to the topography. These ravines will act as stormwater retention features meant to slow down the accumulation of overflow in heavy rain events. This hydrologic design will help to reduce flash flooding occurrences that have plagued the area throughout its history.
Sculpture Fields - The Heart
As one transitions from the more open and gently rolling berms of the original Sculpture Fields, he or she will find themselves in a much more wooded and craggy portion of the outdoor museum—the Heart. Not only will the Heart serve as an expansion to the Sculpture Fields’s collection, but nestled within the valleys formed between the sculpted ridges will be opportunities for play in a natural setting for all ages.
It is here that one may find “the Glen,” a play area for kids 0-5, “the Grotto,” for kids 5-12, as well as “the Canyon” and “the Ridge,” areas intended for all ages.
This portion of the park will be the most elevated, and will include a variety of many trails that will lead up and down the sculpted ridges to provide views of the park, as well as of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge beyond.
The Heart - Ridges and Valleys of Play
“The Glen” - (0-5 yrs)
“The Grotto” - (5-12 yrs)
“The Canyon” - (0-100 yrs)
“The Ridge” - (0-100 yrs)
Recreational Fields - CFCF
Moving further south from the Heart, the park opens up once more. It is here where the park transitions from a place of the sound mind to that of the sound body. Since 2012, this portion of the park has been home to a recreation pitch used for both rugby and soccer, and since 2019 has been home to the Chattanooga Football Club Foundation.
In this vision of the CFCF portion of the park, the one grass pitch will soon be transformed into three new fields with permanent lighting and seating built into the surrounding terrain. The southern portion of the Polk Street Urban Edge is also proposed to house supportive structures, such as restrooms, locker rooms, vending, and even a crossfit studio to diversify the healthy programming on site.
While this portion of the park will be programmed and maintained by CFCF, it will be open to the public when not in use by the CFCF. Additionally, while the fields are not in use for recreation, the large open space they are housed in provide an opportunity for large gatherings.
A Unified Montague Park
Montague park is home to two different but complimentary entities, and the vision plan lays out several landscapes of differing experiences. The greatest vision of the Montague Park plan, however, is how it not only ties these varied uses and spaces together within the park, but also how it reaches out to the community beyond.
The vision plan calls for several new entrances to the park, better connections to surrounding neighborhoods, in addition to a much more inviting openness. Beyond these entrances, one will find a cohesive and more accessible network of paths connecting each new space. Along these paths will be new furnishings such as benches and lighting to enhance the experience and park activities. Most importantly, as it is a park, after all, will be the addition of a myriad blend of complimentary native plant and tree species that will accomplish the most in unifying every square foot of the park.
