Methodically piled heaps of steel and cement mark a block in downtown Cornelius under development. In the coming months, an informal parking lot and alley in downtown Cornelius will be transformed into a full-service medical campus, complemented with a green ribbon of a walkway funded by a Metro Nature in Neighborhoods capital grant.
The salvaged building materials will go back into a modernized Virginia Garcia Wellness Center on the lot, replacing the converted house and garage in which the center was housed. Along with allowing more patients to be seen throughout the year, the new campus is designed to more efficiently achieve the center’s longstanding goal: providing healthcare and wellness education to uninsured and low-income families in the area.
Running east to west through the lot is a crumbling alleyway. Devoid of much green aside from a pair of unhealthy trees, the blacktop path has been an eyesore and walking hazard for years. But plans to reinvigorate the walkway that served the center needed a concept and capital.
Scott Edwards Architecture provided the vision, and the Metro grant provided part of the funding.
"It’s going to be incredible," said Michele Horn, foundation relations officer for Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. "We envision the space as a gathering place, not just for patients but for the community. We really see this as a community enhancement."
Metro has awarded $4.7 million to 18 projects using funds from the voter-approved 2006 natural areas bond measure. Across the region, grant recipients are restoring salmon habitat, planting trees and creating great places in their communities. Successful projects have fallen in four major categories: land acquisition, restoration, neighborhood projects and urban redevelopment efforts such as the alley at Virginia Garcia.
The block-long path will soon be outfitted with permeable pavers, a dozen benches, 16 native trees and as many as 2,500 new plants and shrubs. The architects will also work with Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve to create new interpretive signs that give passersby more information about the bioswales and water-saving features of the campus.
"We wanted to look at the bigger picture of how a building contributes to the water environment in the area and how it can have a positive impact," Horn explained.
The Virginia Garcia Foundation worked with Richard Meyer, Cornelius' development and operations director, on the application that secured the $322,234 Nature in Neighborhoods capital grant. He praised the greenway project as a model for how the city hopes to revitalize three adjacent blocks of alleyway on both sides of the property.
"It’s what the community has wanted for some time," he said. "We’re really happy to get the resources to expand the great services of Virginia Garcia and at the same time build a green walkway in the Main Street area of Cornelius."
The space, frequently used for parking, will soon be a car-free oasis for neighbors and patients at the center. Meyer said the city plans to create parking on the street fronts as each piece of the walkway is completed.
He pointed to the development’s well-rounded emphasis on healthcare, active transportation, education and environmentalism as an asset to Cornelius.
"All of these causes are overlapping and addressed nicely in this project," he said.