SLR awarded Silver Engineering Award for Western Massachusetts Post 9/11 & Service Dog Memorial Park

SLR has been awarded a Silver Engineering Excellence Award for the Western Massachusetts Post 9/11 & Service Dog Memorial Park located in Chicopee, MA from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC-MA).

About the Post-9/11 & Service Dog Memorial Park in Chicopee, MA

The 7-acre property by the Westover Air Reserve Base sat vacant for years. After being donated to the City of Chicopee by the Air Reserve Base, the city aspired to make this area a park but could never get the project past conceptual ideas. After years of false starts, a simple conceptual sketch sparked the necessary support and subsequent funding to bring the vision to reality.

The park was designed with two goals in mind:

• Creating a passive community park that is ripe with creativity, positivity, respect for the military history of the area, and appreciation of those who served, and those who continue to serve, as well as service dogs. It would allow its visitors a holistic experience and the ability to feel and share emotions ranging from celebration, to exercise, to solemn reflection.
• Designing and developing a park that would be extremely functional and accessible for all abilities, sensitive to the existing land and environmental features, and designed with a multi-generation user base in mind - a place for all to feel welcome.

SLR was tasked to design and develop a master plan for the dog park to celebrate the community’s veteran services and the K9 units who fought beside them. The new park is universally accessible with natural trails, nature-themed playgrounds, fitness areas, and a “timeline walk” of granite pavers etched with dates and human losses of Massachusetts deployments since 2001. The park includes nearly 30 interpretive, educational signs illustrating words of service, weapons, and equipment used.

To learn more about about the Post-9/11 & Service Dog Memorial Park project, click here.

“This project is the result of an inter-departmental collaboration between Veterans Services and City Departments, and took a lot of effort from some very special people to give our community a place to honor those who made sacrifices during those attacks … The City is very proud of this project, and we compliment SLR for their professionalism, technical expertise, application of unique and innovative solutions, and dedication to this project.”

John L. Vieau, Mayor of the City of Chicopee, MA