LANSING — Officials unveiled a $3.6 million renovation of the new Fish Ladder Music Park on Oct. 24.
The Capital Region Community Foundation coordinated the project, funded with a combination of public and private money, at the site of the former Burchard Park at the Brenke Fish Ladder.
The focus was on developing a “unique, accessible public space for concerts, festivals, community events, and wellness activities,” officials said in a statement.
“This is the kind of thing cities do when they capitalize on their riverfront and for far too long we’ve turned our backs to the riverfront and we’re not doing that anymore. It’s our front porch,” said Laurie Strauss Baumer, president and CEO of the foundation. “Think of it as a string of pearls along the river and this is the pearl.”
The park features a new outdoor mini-amphitheater, with seating for about 350 people on the banks of the Grand River. It also includes the LAFCU Sound Booth and electrical infrastructure for performances, a mural surrounding the stage created by artist Brian Whitfield and elevated bench swings overlooking the river, a gas fireplace and accessible seating.
The amphitheater is a concrete stage that takes up a bowl-shaped space that was aesthetic, rather than functional. There is now stadium-style seating with the Grand River visible in a sunken gap between the stage and seating.
Additionally, the BWL Electric Forest includes lighting throughout the park that illuminates trees, which was inspired by temporary lighting brought in for annual fall Dam Jam, Baumer told the State Journal earlier this year.
“Most communities with a river flowing through downtown capitalize on that, instead we’ve put our backs to the river,” Baumer added at the time. “It’s time we face forward and appreciate and capitalize on the asset that is our river.”
About half the cost for the project was paid for with a $1.7 million one-time allocation by the state Legislature in 2023.
“Welcome to your new park, but also welcome to your old park,” said Brett Kaschinske, Lansing parks director. “To combine the old with the new, to blend the fish ladder in. To make it the amphitheater that it is. To turn the eye to the river, this park really hits all of the senses.
“Not only is the park here for the festivals and for the events, but it really hits the everyday and that’s something that I think we worked hard to do.”
The fish ladder was built in 1981 to help fish swimming up the Grand River pass the dam.
The fish ladder project is part of a long-term plan, Baumer said, to pull the heart of the city toward the Grand River, which she said is underused in Lansing.
The community foundation has compted two other park projects, at Rotary Park on Riverfront Drive in 2019, and the Play Michigan! accessible park in Adado River Park on Grand Avenue in 2023. She said the foundation plans to build on the connections between the three projects.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Officials unveil new $3.6 million Fish Ladder Music Park in Lansing
Reporting by Lansing State Journal staff / Lansing State Journal
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