Falls Park of the future? Design competition offers glimpse of what’s possible

Get ready for a lot of big ideas for the city’s namesake park.

That’s what the Falls Park design competition was all about – a hope that firms would bring their A-game, offering creative approaches to building on the park’s success and giving visitors a reason to return for years to come.

Confluence, a firm with offices in Sioux Falls and other major metro areas, emerged the winner.

But the whole nature of the competition was such that any firm’s ideas also can be incorporated in the final plan. We looked through all of them to show you what’s possible.

“They were really cool – a lot of grand ideas, I would say, for the future of the park, and that’s exactly what we wanted,” said Don Kearney, the city’s director of parks and recreation. “We wanted to think big and create some energy around what the future vision for Falls Park could look like.”

Five firms were interviewed about their proposals and scored on vision, innovation and creativity, feasibility and practicality, activation and recreation, and connectivity.

Confluence now will put together a final master plan, which will be approved by the City Council, “and they can use their own ideas, they can use other firms’ ideas, there will be public outreach and talks to stakeholders in and around the park, which will be a comprehensive process through late summer and early fall (next year),” Kearney said.

The Confluence proposal alone is a huge one – completing it potentially would take decades and upward of $140 million – but that’s part of setting a vision, said Jon Jacobson, the firm’s senior principal.

“The original bike trail plan in the mid-’70s took over 30 years to get done,” he said. “To me, that’s a testament to our city’s commitment to visions that get established. Our ability to do great, signature public spaces in Sioux Falls is somewhat limited. It’s not New York, it’s not Minneapolis, but Falls Park is one place we can do that.”

In putting its plan together, Confluence talked with many people connected with the park, despite not being able to do a formal public input process because of the competition. A number of themes became apparent, Jacobson said.

While a lot of people view Falls Park as a citywide and tourism destination, it’s also a neighborhood park for those who live in and around downtown, and it could use stronger connecting points to those neighborhoods.

There’s also a desire to maintain the core of the park as it is, with some enhancements but without compromising views or further developing the core with more paths.

And there was a desire to further elevate Falls Park into a “next-level signature park” with more attractions and surrounding development.

“Our submittal was very detailed,” Jacobson said. “The challenging thing is it’s just our take right now. I don’t want people to think this is what it’s going to be. That’s not how we work. This was to show what it could be.”

Ready to see the winning proposal? Here are some highlights of what Confluence created.

Falls Park divides into multiple areas: Falls Park West, which connects to Levitt at the Falls; Falls Park North, which includes the farmers market; and Falls Park Proper, which includes the heart of the Falls, Overlook Cafe and Falls Park Visitor Information Center.

First, the reality checks. There are areas of Falls Park that aren’t easy to navigate, especially as you move around the entire park, Jacobson said.

“All those pieces are kind of disconnected,” he said. “If you live downtown, you cannot take a pedestrian path to the farmers market because the walk stops. So an important part of our proposal was to help solve all those current connection issues.”

Falls Park North

Falls Park North, which includes the farmers market, would be enhanced dramatically under this plan. Here’s a look at some of the potential new features:

Some of the highlights include an integrated Stockyards Ag Experience, which just received a $1.5 million donation from Denny Sanford for the future Woster Plaza. It would tie into an expanded farmers market shelter.

Other features on the north end of the park could include mountain bike trails and a mountain bike skills area, a proposed Nordic museum and surrounding residential development.

“On some level, we want to make it a bit of a vanity address,” Jacobson said. “So if you live on the edge of Falls Park, you have a Falls Park address, it raises its esteem.”

Coming into that area of the park also could look a lot different. This shows a new entry bridge, which would lead to the market area to the north and a proposed makers’ village by the Stockyards Ag Experience barn. A land bridge over Falls Park Drive would connect the north end with what’s known as Falls Park Proper.

“A really big part of our focus is entry into the park,” Jacobson said. “What can we do to make that better than it is today?”

Falls Park Proper

Within the core of the park, Confluence is proposing to rework the path network to generate movement that optimizes views. It also defines more gathering spaces such as a Celebration Cultural Circle and Picnic Shelter Lawn.

Falls Park Proper also could include expanded outdoor dining, whitewater access and a flexible “great lawn.”

The Great Lawn concept is one that appeared in multiple proposals, essentially as a space that could be programmed for events, movie nights and holiday activities.

“And within that event lawn is what we call the Sioux Falls Pavilion because it was really important for us to have this program and design be about the community, so I think that’s a wow factor,” Jacobson said.

Falls Park West

Falls Park West will develop sooner than other areas in the plan thanks to Jacobson Plaza, which will bring an ice ribbon and accessible playground in the next couple of years.

This shows how it could tie into the rest of the park and the upcoming Steel District redevelopment.

Quarry Park

One of the “wow” elements of the Confluence proposal is a reuse of the abandoned quarry on the east side of Weber Avenue.

“We show that being incorporated into Falls Park,” Jacobson said. “And as part of that, we called it Quarry Park, and we showed a lot of adventure stuff being there like zip lines and an urban fishery.”

To view the full Confluence proposal, click here: Confluence-PhaseII.

Other ideas

The firm Asakura Robinson showed an ecology education pavilion, tree farm, and fruit and nut orchard at Falls Park North.

On the east side of the park, it proposed a series of small-scale garden “rooms” next to the revamped Falls Park cafe and a “back porch” space designed to be more for locals with new play experiences.

The firm ISG showed a similar take on connectivity from Weber Avenue and Falls Park Drive, plus suggested designated viewing routes for Winter Wonderland.

The firm RDG showed an interesting take on turning the Queen Bee Mill into an event space.

And it showed a new take on a visitor and interpretive center.

And the final team of Stockwell, JLG Architects and OJB showed a Great Lawn concept with these program ideas.

It also proposed a dog park, band shell and children’s park.

Confluence can take any and all ideas into consideration in compiling the final master plan.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to do this for real over the course of the next year and see what comes out of it,” Jacobson said.

“There are so many decisions to be made, and that was one of the things about our submittal — looking at the nontraditional ways to fund some of this. Because we know if it’s all capital dollars, the ability to elevate this into a signature park isn’t going to happen.”

To view all the proposals, click here.