Griswold Airport Park Plans Scheduled To Take Flight

Neighbors and Madison Park Development Committee members breathed a sigh of relief after landscape architect Anne Penniman presented the latest draft of plans for the new park to be built on the former Griswold Airport property. 

"I had a speech, which I now have to not give, because it's based on the old plan but first I'd like to say thank you for taking into consideration our concerns about the Griswold house, said Dud's Village resident Helayne Lightstone. "We're really looking forward to having this park next to us." 

The firm's first pass at the project had concessions and restrooms housed in the Griswold house, which is situated close to the park's property line and in close proximity of backyards in Dud's Village. 

In the current draft, most buildings on the property are slated for removal, including the Griswold house. The north hangar will be restored to a galvanized steel frame, dome-shaped structure with lots of glass windows and large garage doors, according to architect George Penniman. 

"The thought was to give this building a bowed roof that would reflect the nature, architecture of the hangar," said George Penniman, who suggested that the hangar was a potential spot for solar panels because the roof is flat and south facing. 

Concessions and restrooms will be housed in a new 16' x 20' building to will be added to the southeast corner of the hangar. 

Penniman said refurbishing old buildings to be handicap accessible would cost more than building new. 

Current park details 

Although most standing structures will be removed, the architects wanted to maintain a link between the historical usage of the park as an airport and its new function as a nature conservancy by transforming the built items into natural features. 

Anne Penniman said the "big gesture" would be a handicap accessible pathway along the old runway made of native materials, like sandy gravel, which leads out to a deck and boardwalk or platform with a vista of the salt marsh. 

But, perhaps in the grandest homage to nature, built forms and things in flight, Penniman suggested that the guide lights along the old runway could be replaced with birdhouses. 

"The old lights along the runway…just had a nice rhythm," she said of the houses which would allow people "to see what's flying through or living there." 

Penniman also recommended that a channel excavated for sea plane landing be converted into a kayak launch.  

"We're lucky enough to have a little bit of that on the site and access that and utilize it for kayak launching." 

Anne Penniman said the design was inspired by the "the site and the beautiful natural habitats on the site and how "the straight lines of human built elements overlay an undulating natural landscape."

The committee plans to present an official draft of the plan to the Board of Selectmen in October. Construction of the the 42-acre park, which will have three multipurpose fields, passive recreation space, a conservation easement, a kayak launch area, an amphitheater and picnic areas is anticipated to begin next spring, with passive recreation areas being ready in the late summer or fall.

The park will be operated by the Beach and Recreationwhen the project is complete.