The park is scheduled to be complete in late 2012

One of the Civic Center area’s central parks is scheduled for a facelift starting next month. Collect Pond Park, located between Centre and Lafayette, and Leonard and Franklin Streets, is on track for full reconstruction by the city Department of Parks & Recreation. The yearlong project will transform the dilapidated concrete plaza into a green park, complete with new landscaping, benches, tables and chairs, lighting, bicycle racks, water supply and irrigation, and a reconstructed storm drainage system.

Through a new water feature and design details, the rebuilt park will hark back to the site’s history, when Collect Pond served as a source of drinking water until the city drained it in 1805 (by digging a channel to the river that eventually formed Canal Street). Parks Department crews will incorporate the adjacent parking lot into the Collect Pond Park site, using the increased acreage to form a central pond. When the rebuilt park opens in late 2012, the pond will be surrounded by trees and flowers, wave-patterned pavers, interactive water spray feature for children, and a bridge crossing over it.

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