Waterbury Development Corporation Waterbury, CT

George Tirado Sr. Park

BSC Group was selected by the Waterbury Development Corporation (WDC) to design a new recreational facility on an abandoned five-acre property. During our previous on-call contract with Waterbury, BSC worked with city stakeholders to develop a master plan for the potential redevelopment of the Mad River Corridor, which consisted of five city-owned brownfield parcels along the Mad River in the City’s south end neighborhood. Among these sites was the contaminated 313 Mill Street parcel, formerly occupied by the Nova Dye & Print Corporation until it caught fire in 2012. BSC prepared a conceptual design for the site that analyzed the opportunities and constraints for its redevelopment possibilities.

BSC was retained by the City to put this initial concept plan into action and to develop a design that converts this abandoned lot into a recreational resource. The park utilizes BSC’s initial proposed layout plan and includes parking, walkways, access points, and an open space/field area. BSC’s design also shored up the roadway and created flood mitigation measures to help contain damage from future flooding of the Mad River.

A unique component to this project was BSC’s work designing a prefabricated modular wall to support adverse grading on site. The retaining wall minimizes the encroachment onto the existing floodway, while maximizing available open field space.