Merritt Chase Selected to Design Canal Basin Park in Cleveland, Ohio

Canal Basin Park is a 20-acre confluence of connected public green spaces and a significant historic site on the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland. In the early 19th century, it marked the origins of Cleveland as the center of commerce at the terminus of the Ohio Erie Canal and the gateway to the Great Lakes. As Cleveland developed, the Canal Basin was filled and repurposed with railroad infrastructure, roads and parking, and other industrial land uses.
 
Today, the park site sits in the middle of significant adjacent development and existing assets including the regional Towpath Trail, Heritage Park and Settler’s Landing, Public Square, the Sherwin Williams and Bedrock developments, construction on Irishtown Bend, the Detroit-Superior Bridge Viaduct and Redline Greenway planning, and connectivity to the downtown Lakefront redevelopment. In 2021, the completion of the Towpath Trail into downtown Cleveland connected this park to a broader region. The City together with Canalway Partners, Cleveland Metroparks, and the Ohio Department of Transportation completed the Towpath Trailhead at the park by removing underutilized parking lots preparing the park for its next phase.
 
The public planning process for Canal Basin Park will create a design that aims to be visionary and implementable. The project will build upon past planning efforts and will focus on celebrating the park’s unique industrial heritage, river ecology, and cultural history while creating an experience for all park users where everyone feels like they belong. The park is meant to connect to a broader context in the city along the river and trails, and transform the varied and disparate land uses into a unified and complementary park experience. The park planning will also focus on future amenities and programming, repurposing infrastructure and updating utilities, and sustaining future funding and operations for the park.

We are excited to be working with The City of Cleveland, ThirdSpace Action Lab, OHM Advisors, and many other partners to plan the future of Canal Basin Park!