Black Hawk County, Iowa
Our firm was commissioned by the State Conservation Commission (now the Iowa Department of Natural Resources) to design a new master plan for the renovation and reconstruction of George Wyth Memorial State Park. This project was oriented toward providing up-to-date recreation facilities while preserving the natural resources of the site in an urban setting within the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area. The project dictated a solution which combined intensive, lake-related, day-use facilities with passive recreation uses such as camping, hiking, and interpretation. Following the master plan’s implementation, the park went from one of the least to the most popular and heaviest used in the State’s entire system. The Cedar River and each of the four lakes in the park provide a mixture of passive and active water recreation activities. The large expanse of woodland in the park is home to a wide variety of wildlife and has been designated as a National Urban Wildlife Sanctuary.