Clean Lakes Alliance Announces Reimagining Warner Beach Design contest winners

Madison, Wis. (May 3, 2018) – A class from the Social Innovation and Sustainability Leadership program at Edgewood College has claimed second place in the Clean Lakes Alliance Reimagining Warner Beach design contest. The first and third place awardees are both professional design firms.

Made possible with the support of a Madison Community Foundation 75th Anniversary Year of Giving grant, the contest asked amateur and professional designers to come up with plans for Warner Beach that focused on improving water quality, sustainability, community access, and placemaking to promote community health, happiness and wellbeing.

“We’re thrilled to see exciting new visions for Warner Beach—and for all our beaches—come to life as part of Madison Community Foundation’s 75th Anniversary Year of Giving,” said president Bob Sorge. “Our lakes are among Madison’s most unique natural and cultural assets, and the winning designs reflect our community’s passion and determination to ensure these precious resources are healthy and thriving for generations to come.”

The second place award, and a $4,000 prize, went to the program’s “The Great 58.” Team members from the 'Urban Community-Based Sustainable Development' class include Elizabeth Cwik, David Danforth, Johanna Golden, Halie Tenor, Nyra Jordan, Michael Weber, Jay White, Amanda Wilson, and Instructor Carrie Sanders.

In their design statement, the team wrote “We place the residents of the Warner Beach neighborhood at the center of our process so that their voice is tightly woven throughout our work…We believe the design approach we’ve taken accomplishes the following: celebrates the existing park and its assets, allows the community to envision what they want the park to be in the future, celebrates the open space in the park to inspire imagination of visitors to connect with nature and use areas based on their own desires, [and] promotes year-round use of the beach...”

The first place award went to MSR Design of Minneapolis, MN with “The Living Edge.” Third place was awarded to “Warner Beach – A Case Study in Urban Ecotones,” created by Saiki Design of Madison.

Madison Parks will take all designs submitted and will gather community input starting this fall. The parks division hopes to gain approval for changes from the Board of Park Commissioners early next year with project implementation starting sometime in mid to late 2019.

Photo: l. to r. –  Nyra Jordan, Instructor Carrie Sanders, Halie Tenor ’17, David Danforth (a community partner), Mike Weber, Jay White, Amanda Wilson, Elizabeth Cwik (a community partner).

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