Riverside Commons Park Revitalization

A 14-acre waterfront commons for the City of Brookhaven, Parks & Open Space Division

Submitted byMeridian Land Studio

RFP No.BRK-2026-PR-0142

DateJune 13, 2026

Contactproposals@meridianland.studio

Our understanding

The City of Brookhaven seeks a design partner to transform the decommissioned Riverside rail yard into a connected waterfront commons — restoring 1,900 linear feet of shoreline, knitting the Eastside neighborhood back to the Maple River, and delivering a resilient, low-maintenance landscape that performs through a 100-year flood event. We read this as a stormwater-first commission: every gathering space, path, and planting decision should also be doing hydrological work.

14acres of new public open space

1,900'of restored living shoreline

38%reduction in peak runoff (modeled)

Design approach

Restore before you build. Daylight the buried Cedar Run culvert into a vegetated swale that doubles as the park's central spine.
Layer the edge. A terraced bioretention edge absorbs flood pulses while giving visitors stepped access to the water.
Design for low touch. Native meadow and successional woodland over turf — cutting irrigation and mowing by an estimated 60%.
Make it legible. A single accessible loop ties the overlook, event lawn, and play terrace into one intuitive circuit.

Indicative phasing & budget

Phase	Scope	Duration	Order-of-magnitude cost
1 — Remediation	Soil capping, demolition, grading	5 months	$3.2M
2 — Shoreline	Living shoreline, swale daylighting	7 months	$5.8M
3 — Commons	Loop path, event lawn, play terrace	6 months	$4.1M
4 — Planting	Meadow, woodland, establishment	4 months	$1.6M

Why Meridian

We are a 22-person landscape architecture and ecological design studio with a decade of waterfront and post-industrial reclamation work across the region. Our Harbor Point Greenway won the 2025 ASLA Honor Award for Resilient Design, and our Cedar Mill daylighting project is now a regional precedent for culvert restoration. We bring our own in-house hydrology and community-engagement teams, so the people modeling the flood are the same people sketching the overlook.