GREENFIELD — Greenfield parks officials met with architects Thursday to discuss next steps to bring the former Riley Park shelter house back to life, eight months after the original shelter burned to the ground in late December.
Parks director Ellen Kuker said it’s a time-consuming process to rebuild such a structure from the ground up, “but we have no doubt we’re going to come up with a facility the community will love,” she said.
As an excavator tore up bits of the former foundation Thursday afternoon, parks officials and architects from arc DESIGN of Indianapolis met near the site of the former shelter house on the east side of Riley Park, where the new structure will be built.
The former historic structure was ravaged by fire the morning of Dec. 28, leaving only charred beams and a crumbled half wall of stone. Fire inspectors were unable to determine the cause of the blaze.
While engineers determined no parts of the shelter could be salvaged, parks staff did retrieve stone after the building was demolished to be used as an accent feature within the new shelter.
“For now, we plan to use it to build a faux fireplace on the far west end of the building, framed by big picture windows overlooking the creek,” said Josh Gentry, maintenance operations manager for the Greenfield Parks Department.
While the fire destroyed a beloved local landmark that held fond memories going back for generations, Gentry said the new structure will not only honor the past but also boast new features that will make the gathering place even better than before.
“Between the overall layout, the roof line and the salvaged stone, I think that it’s definitely going to have the feel of the old building but with a larger footprint,” he said.
The new 2,600-square-foot shelter will feature roughly the same layout but will be ADA accessible and have four restrooms, twice as many as before. It will also include a larger kitchen with a catering door and serving window.
“We’re incorporating elements that will hearken back to the past, like the old bronze panel (commemorating James Whitcomb Riley) that hung above the old fireplace,” said Gentry.
“That’s going in a shadowbox that will hang over the new fireplace, with a little bit of history on the building and information about that morning in December when the building burned. While it was tragic, we want to keep that history alive,” he said.
Kuker said the parks staff is anxious to share the new shelter house plans with the public as they work with architects on finalizing the design.
“One of our main goals was to come up with the design that had elements from the original structure while making it even better than before, and I feel like we’ve captured that,” said Kuker, referring to a rendering of the new shelter house exterior and interior in her office.
The proposed picture windows on the west end of the building will provide an amazing view of the creek and let in plenty of natural light, she said.
The parks staff plans to share the conceptual design with the public at two upcoming concerts at Depot Street Park — on Sept. 9 and 23 — when visitors will have the chance to vote on one of three potential art designs to be featured on the outer chimney on the east end of the new shelter house.
A brick fundraiser will eventually be held to pay for the artwork to be featured on the east end of the shelter house, giving community members a chance to pay for their name to be engraved into bricks that will form a pathway leading to the new shelter house.
As the department works toward finalizing a building design, city officials continue to communicate with insurance adjusters and architects to work toward a final construction cost estimate.
“For now, we’re hoping to start construction in the spring and to have a functioning facility sometime in the summer of 2024,” said Kuker.
“We can never replace the original structure — which held tons of sentimental value to so many people in our community — but what we can do is replace it with one that pays respect to the old structure while serving our community for many years to come.”
