NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It's a new day at Centennial Park, and city officials along with Metro Parks and the Conservancy have been celebrating its redesign.
"This new renovation will really activate the front part of the park," said Tommy Lynch, Metro Parks Director.
Now there's dedicated space for Musicians Corner with paths and benches, a new parking lot and entry plaza to the Parthenon, a formal events lawn, plus the historic Cockrill Spring, once buried and drained to a sewer, has been brought back to the surface as part of a storm water project.
The cost of phase one was $9.1 million dollars paid with public and private funding.
Mayor Karl Dean said it's one of Nashville's great treasures.
"Centennial Park is such an important investment in the city, and I think it was time to make an investment here," he said.
The park redesign was established in the 2010 Centennial Park master plan focusing on visitors, programming, the landscape and water quality of Lake Watauga where the water from Cockrill Spring has been pumped.
Lynch said everything has been falling into place.
"It's consistent with what Mayor Dean and the green ribbon project had done with making Nashville a greener city, and it does everything for Centennial that he wanted to do with the city," he said. "It's a step in the right direction."
Officials said phase one was completed on time and under budget. The Conservancy has begun private solicitation to help fund phase two.
