Baden Community Open Space Plan
After two years of collaborating with organizations and residents in the Baden neighborhood, a team led by professor Rod Barnett has completed the Baden Community Open Space Plan. In the voids created by voluntary buyout and demolition, the Baden neighborhood has an opportunity to redefine how infrastructure and greenspace can come together to create a space that serves residents. The team of partners has included the Green City Coalition, the City of St. Louis’ Sustainability Office, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Riverview West Florissant Development Corporation.
The multidisciplinary partnership engaged faculty from environmental studies, environmental engineering, political science, public health, landscape architecture, and more. The Baden Community Open Space Plan challenges these conventional approaches and proposes solutions that are both accessible and beneficial to the surrounding community. The completed proposal is a strategy for a large-scale, long-term series of community projects. It offers a framework of ground-plane contouring, planting, and infrastructure that integrates with MSD’s plans for water management. This proposal offers a template for integrated, long-term green infrastructure implementation for the St. Louis region, and shows an opportunity to go beyond traditional infrastructure to offer greater social and environmental benefits to residents while addressing critical storm water challenges.