Spruce Street Harbor Park Engagement

Spruce Street Harbor Park Engagement and Visioning

The outreach and engagement strategy for this plan included public events with park users, and an on-line survey that invited public feedback. This process highlighted how people use the park, how they want to use the park, and how the design of the park could better serve their needs. Eight categories of elements and activities were listed above an interactive graph. Each participant was given three coins to “spend” on their top three priorities that should be included or considered in the future development of the Harbor Park. This prompted conversations with visitors around priorities. Additional notes were captured in tags that were pinned under the graph.

450 people participated in both the pop-up events and the on-line survey. Participants came from all over the city as well as some participants who were visiting from other parts of the country and even other countries. The results from the survey and the in-person engagement were consistent and seemed to point to the same conclusions. An increased connection to the water, an high interest in small-scale events and food vendors were consistently the top rated items.

The engagement results were used by DRWC to make direct, informed decisions about additional improvements and programming. Hinge Collective provided design services for these improvements; a floating barge now provides more connection to the water and an outdoor stage area now provides a place for shows and concerts, food, drink and games.