The site’s status as a brownfield was a primary factor influencing the design process. Rather than exporting the contaminated soil or capping the entire site–two options that would have been costly and with negative off-site impacts–the team incorporated a remediation strategy as an integral component of the design. This decision would go on to inform nearly every aspect of the project, including mobility, microclimate, noise mitigation, and architecture. Perhaps most noticeably, the remediation strategy drove the creation of a hilly topography rarely found in Florida, which is now one of the park’s defining features.
Bonnet Springs Park welcomes visitors from throughout the city and connects neighborhoods currently divided by transportation infrastructure and gaps in the urban fabric. New walking and bike paths, welcoming entrances, and integration of transit boost accessibility. A two-mile long pedestrian loop–the Circulator–curves around the upland plateau, ushers visitors down to the wetlands and lagoon, and defines the Park’s four main zones.
The two major water systems within the Bonnet Springs Park site faced environmental challenges. Lake Bonnet is the most polluted lake in Lakeland, and Bonnet Springs Valley, which drains into Lake Bonnet, was experiencing an accelerated rate of erosion along its banks. In response to these challenges, a diverse set of green infrastructure strategies were employed to capture, redirect, and mitigate the on- and off-site watersheds. The new hydrological regime diverts drained water into a new pipe and brings it to a lagoon, preventing erosion of the spring corridor. This design approach improves water quality and helps restore a sensitive ecosystem.
When Lakeland Railyard, a major freight hub in Central Florida, closed in 1952, it abandoned an industrial landscape that had been degraded since the 1880s. In 2015, recognizing that metro Lakeland is one of the fastest growing regions in the country and building upon the city’s strong tradition of parks and natural areas, local enthusiasts proposed the creation of a new central park. Completed in 2022, Bonnet Springs Park is the result of an extensive community outreach, master planning and design process led by the landscape architect and a multidisciplinary team to create an ecological jewel, a cultural magnet, and a connected community asset. The park features heritage gardens, a canopy walk, botanic gardens, playgrounds, and an event lawn. Walking and biking paths connect major park spaces with three new buildings. The design remediates the former industrial landscape and restores natural systems–removing invasive exotic plants, treating stormwater with wetlands and bioswales, and capping contaminated soil in large hills that also function as overlooks. The park welcomes diverse visitors and reinforces links to previously disconnected neighborhoods.
Bonnet Springs Park is a public, community asset built with private funds. It is free and open every day of the year, and is truly a gift to its community.
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Site Plan: Over a five-year period, the former brownfield site was transformed into an ecological jewel, a cultural magnet, and a connected community asset for the rapidly growing Lakeland, Florida, region.
Sasaki
Site History: Beginning in 1880, the 168-acre Bonnet Springs Park site was home to the Lakeland Railyard, which served as a major freight hub on the East Coast. The railyard closed in 1952, leaving the land in an abandoned state.
Sasaki
Brownfield Remediation: Decades of industrial use left the site in a degraded condition. Remediation strategies included the removing invasive plants, constructing wetlands and bioswales to treat runoff, and capping contaminated soil in large hills that d
Sasaki
Event Lawn: The park’s two-acre event lawn is embraced by the park’s new sculpted hills and the Florida Children’s Museum building.
Jeremy Bittermann
Heritage Garden: The Heritage Garden tells the history of the site’s rail yard and orange grove. Featuring linear pollinator paths and fruit trees, the Garden seamlessly connects back to the Welcome Center and Plaza.
Matthew Arielly
Canopy Walk: The site’s densely shaded grove of live oak trees features a walkway that soars 18 feet above the woodland floor. At moments along this quarter-mile-long walkway, views open up to showcase the park’s magnificent 200-year-old Grandfather Oak.
Jeremy Bittermann
Nature Play: The four rooms of the Nature Play area highlight the park’s main landscape typologies: plateau, valley slope, sand seep spring, and woodland. Individual play elements in each zone invite children to explore the site's natural vegetation and
Matthew Arielly (left; Jeremy Bittermann (right)
Bonnet Springs Valley: The Bonnet Springs Valley was created by the natural eroding processes of the Bonnet Springs, a rare sand seep spring. The restored ecosystem along the spring corridor will naturally stabilize the banks, clean the water, and provid
Jeremy Bittermann
Stormwater Treatment Pond: A meandering boardwalk brings people through the wetland gardens where visitors can learn about the native Florida landscape and the importance of wetlands to clean and treat stormwater.
Jeremy Bittermann
Botanical Gardens: The Botanical Gardens takes visitors of all ages on a journey through a landscape dedicated to exploring all five senses. The ornamental gardens display the diverse horticulture of the region while serving as a natural setting for art a
Jeremy Bittermann (left); Matthew Arielly (right)
Nature Center & Boat House: Perched on stilts above a remediated lagoon overlooking Lake Bonnet and shrouded by preserved oaks, the cypress-clad Nature Center offers park visitors the opportunity to learn about the ecology of central Florida, enjoy a snac
Jeremy Bittermann
Oak Grove: The park is tied together through 2.5 miles of walking paths and boardwalks to allow visitors to access its live oak forest and newly constructed programs.
Jeremy Bittermann
Outreach & Iteration: The multidisciplinary design team integrated the community’s input on programming through collaborative work sessions resulting in the seamless integration of landscape and architecture.
Sasaki
Regional Water Quality: Due to the 200 acres of off-site urban runoff that flowed through the park, Lake Bonnet and the nearby natural springs were among the most heavily polluted and disturbed watersheds in Lakeland.
Sasaki
Stormwater Treatment System: The re-engineered stormwater system uses a diverse range of green infrastructure strategies to capture, redirect, and mitigate the on-site and off-site watersheds
Sasaki
Lagoon: The new hydrological regime diverts the drained water into the lagoon, a nearly seven-acre basin where the water can decelerate, settle, and percolate through a 1,300-linear-foot edge of forested wetlands before being released into Lake Bonnet.
Jeremy Bittermann
Boat House & Lagoon: The boathouse playfully peeks out from the oaks, greeting visitors as they approach the lagoon. From here, visitors can access the boardwalk ramps down to the floating boat dock with boat rental facilities.
Jeremy Bittermann (left); Matthew Arielly (right)
Boat House: The boathouse includes a screened and shaded pergola with picnic tables and kitchen amenities. Exposed pine boards and deep overhangs direct scenic views over the Lagoon.
Matthew Arielly
Event Center: One of the first mass-timber constructions in the region, the Event Center offers Lakeland a new destination for connections and community gathering. Events can also be held outside on the lawn, surrounded by the botanic gardens.
Jeremy Bittermann
Event Center: In harmony with the landscape, the building welcomes nature inside with a wrap-around glass façade, protected from the sun by large overhangs and wood screens.
Jeremy Bittermann
Welcome Center: A warm embrace greeting every visitor that enters Bonnet Springs Park, the Welcome Center makes use of curvilinear lines and organic forms to introduce its visitors to the new 168-acre park they are about to explore.
Jeremy Bittermann (left); Matthew Arielly (right)
Children’s Museum: Nestled between two hills and hugging the park’s central event lawn, the Children’s Museum blurs the lines between landscape and architecture by integrating to the site’s natural topography.
Matthew Arielly
Children’s Museum: Home to Bonnet Spring’s educational and cultural development, the museum offers four interactive exhibits for children of all ages, as well as a playful outdoor experience, classrooms for programming, and an immersive Black Box theater.
Jeremy Bittermann
Children’s Museum: Bright, inviting hues and recurring geometric motifs highlight important spaces in the Florida Children’s Museum.
Lakeland
Florida, USA
Bonnet Springs Park, Inc.
Recreational
10/2022
679872 sq. m
130,000,000.00 $
Sasaki
Anna Cawrse - Design Principal (Site); Zach Chrisco - Principal in Charge (Site), Lead Civil Engineer; Andrew Gutterman - Managing Principal; Fiske Crowell - Principal in Charge (Architecture); Ashley Pelletier - Project Landscape Architect; Chris Hardy - Project Landscape Architect; Caitlin O’Hara - Graphic Designer; Liz Kaminoh - Interior Designer; Steven Engler - Project Civil Engineer; Michael Frechette - Project Architect; Lucca Townsend - Project Architect; Cecilia Hardy - Interior Designer; Marta Lucila Rosso - Project Architect
Rodda Construction
Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design; Geosyntec (remediation consultants); Lunz Group (local architect); Kimley Horn (local civil, permitting, traffic consultant); BR+A (MEP Engineers)
Jeremy Bittermann; Matthew Arielly
Curriculum
At Sasaki, we believe defining the future of place must be a collective, contextual, and values-driven exercise. We all have a stake in this work.
For seventy years, Sasaki has brought together the best of architecture, interior design, planning and urban design, space planning, landscape architecture, and civil engineering to shape the places in which we live. Out of our Boston, Denver, New York and Shanghai offices we are defining the contours of place and redefining what’s possible along the way. Today, we are a diverse practice of over 300 professionals who share a singular passion for creating authentic, equitable, and inspiring places.
