The City of Muncie and the north side Halteman Village Neighborhood Association are working to reestablish the vitality of the Halteman community by reimagining an abandoned swim club property as a new city park.

In the summer of 2019, the neighborhood association partnered with Ball State’s Building Better Neighborhoods (BBN) grant-funded immersive learning projects and the Open Spaces Design Studio in the Department of Landscape Architecture. Led by Chris Baas, associate professor, and Steve Burrows, assistant teaching professor, students designed a new green space for the park.

Current state of Halteman Village

Building upon this work, in spring 2020, a new BBN grant-funded project began. Taught by Baas and assistant professors Jeremy Merrill and J.P. Hall, this studio class was able to formalize additional plans. The students worked with the neighborhood association, the City of Muncie, and the community at large to strategize, vision, and plan for future improvements to the park.

Student teams created multiple designs, each focusing on distinct areas of improvement such as a water feature, playground, or recreational area. The designs incorporate the feedback from a community meeting where children were prompted to draw pictures of what they would like to see in the park.

During the summer, students Krista Walterbusch and Emma Hawkins combined all of the designs into a comprehensive package to produce a planning report and video for a presentation to the neighborhood and city.

View the presentation video here…

Credits:
Video and Final Design_Krista Walterbusch
Preliminary Design_Krista Walterbusch and Keller Oeth (from LA 202 Park and Open Space Design)
Video Cover Illustration_Keller Oeth (from LA 202 Park and Open Space Design)