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Dayton Parks Commission advances MSA and Damon Farber as finalists for L.C. Stevens master plan
Summary
The Parks Commission interviewed three consultant teams for the L.C. Stevens Park master plan — Damon Farber, HKGI and MSA — and agreed to forward MSA and Damon Farber as finalists to the city council for interviews. Commissioners cited in-person engagement, local knowledge and engineering capacity in their preferences.
The City of Dayton Parks Commission interviewed three consultant teams Feb. 4 for the L.C. Stevens Park master plan and agreed to advance two firms — MSA Professional Services and Damon Farber — to the city council as finalists for selection.
Why it matters: The master plan will establish priorities for L.C. Stevens Park, which commissioners and consultants described as a community- and riverfront-anchored park with strong neighborhood connectivity and growing regional trail links. Commissioners said they prefer firms that demonstrate both community engagement experience and the capacity to carry a plan through design and construction.
Damon Farber presentation. Chuck Evans, a landscape architect with Damon Farber, opened the firm’s interview and described the firm as a landscape-architect-led office with experience in park master planning, system planning and construction administration. Rachel Blazek, project manager with Damon Farber, highlighted examples of their work that moved from master plan to implementation and emphasized cost estimating in phasing decisions. Damon Farber stressed a collaborative, curiosity-driven approach and cited work ranging from regional waterfront projects to neighborhood parks.
HKGI presentation and site-visit question. The remotely hosted HKGI team (with Griffin Dempsey and Brian Hartis speaking) discussed riverfront and community-park experience and civil engineering support via a Design Tree partner. Commissioners asked whether the HKGI team had visited L.C. Stevens Park; the presenter said he had reviewed background materials and street-level imagery but had not yet been on site, and described a first-step site visit as the team’s near-term plan.
MSA presentation. MSA Professional Services presented a multi-disciplinary local team including landscape architects, planners and engineers. Rayne Gardner, principal in charge, and Dan Williams, a principal landscape architect, emphasized MSA’s waterfront and municipal experience, its in-house engineering and funding-capability resources, and a three-phase master-planning approach that includes robust public engagement, concept development and implementation phasing. MSA said it had already worked on Dayton projects such as the Dayton Water Trail and the L.C. Stevens canoe/kayak launch.
Commissioner preferences and rationale. Commissioners discussed tradeoffs among the teams and said they valued firms that had visited the site, demonstrated a track record of moving from master plan to built projects, and could supply civil and engineering support during planning to avoid producing concepts that later proved unbuildable. Several commissioners favored MSA because of its local project experience and apparent ability to shepherd work from concept through construction; Damon Farber received support for its documented record of phasing and implementation on similar parks. Commissioners expressed concern that one presenter had not visited the site before the interview.
Outcome. The commission did not take a roll-call vote but signaled consensus to forward two finalists, MSA and Damon Farber, to the city council for the council’s finalist interviews and selection. The commission asked staff to place the finalists on the council’s agenda for interviews and to coordinate next steps.
Ending: The commission moved from consultant interviews to final agenda items and procedural business.
