Visitors will soon find it easier to navigate through Forest Park, thanks to the installation of the new park-wide Way-Finding System. It is one of two capital improvement projects Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis announced last Tuesday at a press conference held at Forest Park’s Visitor and Education Center.
Community input played a vital role in the project, with many requests for clearer directional signs throughout the park. It is estimated that a quarter of Forest Park’s 13 million annual visitors are not local and may find the park’s existing brown directional signs confusing.
Lack of bike racks near restrooms and scarce wintertime restrooms and drinking fountains were also common concerns, said Forest Park Forever President and Executive Director Lesley Hoffarth.
“Just because people love Forest Park,” Hoffarth said, “it doesn’t mean that they can’t be critical of what needs to be done.”
There are now twice the number of signs, said Board of Public Service President Richard T. Bradley. The visitor-friendly system will include 239 new directional signs, park maps, informational kiosks and banners. The signs are also more attractive and blend well into the park’s landscape, Bradley said. Installation of the way-finding system begins this month and will be completed by fall.
Forest Park exists because generous donors – individuals, companies and foundations – have helped to restore the park over the years, said Forest Park Forever Board Chairman Steve Finerty. The $1.1 million Way-Finding Project was made possible through donations from the William T. Kemper Foundation at Commerce Bank. Forest Park Forever and other cultural institutions, like the Saint Louis Science Center, provided funds toward initial design costs.
The second capital improvement project will be completed in two phases. Phase one will start this fall with work on the park’s restrooms, also referred to as comfort stations, and drinking fountains. Upgrades include heat for year-round operation, new bike racks and drinking fountains accessible to disabled visitors. Restrooms will also be more accessible to the park’s recreational path system, Bradley said.
Restrooms to be upgraded in phase one are located southeast of the Hampton Avenue entrance roundabout and on the north side of Steinberg Skating Rink, Bradley said. The third is located on Wells Drive between the St. Louis Zoo and I-64. A restroom located on Clayton Avenue west of Aviation Field will also be upgraded, he said. Phase one will be completed by December.
Future phases of this project will provide for more dramatic renovations. “Phase two of the restroom project will transform these comfort stations into full gathering plazas for families and groups,” Bradley said.
Finerty acknowledged the Brown Shoe Company Charitable Trust for the company’s $750,000 multi-year gift for the restroom project. Gifts also benefit the Forest Park Forever endowment fund, he said, which is crucial for park maintenance.
This marks the beginning of phase two of capital improvements, said Gary Bess, city director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry. The latest capital improvement projects, like all previous projects, are in alignment with the Forest Park Master Plan.
“We’ve already spent over $100 million since 1995 restoring the park,” Bess said. An additional $30 million worth of capital improvements will be completed over the next three to five years, he said.
“Everyone knows what a jewel we have in Forest Park,” said Tony Thompson, Forest Park Forever board member and CEO and board chairman of Kwame Building Group. “It only makes sense to continue to upgrade and maintain it. To have a great park like this that’s free and all the amenities that exist here takes money, and I just try to do my part to support it.”
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