Client:
Tony Gulotta, Mayor
City of Plaquemine
Plaquemine, LA 70764
(225) 687-3116
Awards:
• Louisiana Chapter, ASLA Merit Award, 2007

Bayou Plaquemine Waterfront Park celebrates family, the area’s history, and the region’s close relationship with its waterways. The park makes an aesthetic contribution to the City of Plaquemine, offers opportunities to learn about nature and history, preserves the natural environment, complements the historic identity of the city, and provides an area that residents can point to with pride. Visitors can fish, boat, enjoy scenic overlooks, bird watch, picnic at the pavilions, and visit the historic Lock House.

A place for family gatherings, downtown festivals, and recreational activities, the park is located on Bayou Plaquemine, within the Plaquemine Historic District, which is part of the National Registry of Historic Places. Scenic Louisiana Highway 1 (National River Road) and Louisiana Highway 77 (state byway) border the park. The park's entry gate provides a frame for the Romanesque-style St. John the Evangelist Church in the distance, while the recently-added landscape elements echo the distinctive Dutch architecture of the site’s 1909 River Lock House.

Bayou Plaquemine Waterfront Park's Master Plan called for a scenic recreation area to meet the specific and unique needs of the city, community, and state. At the local level, the park is part of the City of Plaquemine Main Street Program. At the community level, it is one component of the larger, regional Iberville Parish Community Master Plan. On an even broader scale, the park falls within the Atchafalaya Basin Program (ABP), a state planning initiative to maintain the area's resources, identity, history and culture. To fit within the ABP parameters, the park must preserve and enhance the area’s natural and historic character.

The park evolved in three phases with Moore Planning Group, LLC (MPG) overseeing the second and third phases. In 2001, the City of Plaquemine completed Phase I, the elevated wooden boardwalk and walkway. Phase II, completed in June 2006, featured the pavilion, overlook, decorative fencing, a bricked medallion and concrete walkway leading to the bayou’s edge, grading and drainage improvements, lighting, parking, and ADA-accessible sidewalks. The completion of Phases I and II stimulated the growth of tourism, increased interest in renovation of historic business and residential buildings, and encouraged economic growth in the area. Phase III, currently in progress, will include transforming a former machine shop site into a multipurpose pavilion, open plaza space, meeting rooms and additional parking.