New park on City Center site is ready now for visitors

Just waiting for spring
New park on City Center site is ready now for visitors
Thursday, January 6, 2011 02:51 AM
By Mark Ferenchik
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
It used to be Mecca for shoppers, but now the site of the former Columbus City Center mall attracts those curious about what
the new Columbus Commons park offers. It’s the middle of winter, but the park – a 9-acre splash of green nestled between S.
High and S. 3rd streets just south of the Statehouse – is substantially complete and open to the public. Vicki Saunders and
Brian Enck said they’ll visit often. The two were walking yesterday across the commons toward the old Lazarus building,
where they work as project coordinators for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. “We need more green space with
people coming to the Downtown area,” said Saunders, 53, a Northeast Side resident. There’s still work to be done. A concrete
pad sits at the south end of the park. Planners say a carousel will be installed there in the spring. A band shell will occupy the
park’s northern end at the rear of the Ohio Theater. The Franklin Park Conservatory will design 12 flower beds and begin
planting evergreen shrubs, perennials and annuals in May, said Bruce Harkey, the conservatory’s executive director’¦
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