Belle Isle Vision Plan
Marvel’s Belle Isle Vision Plan focuses on revealing and connecting four anchor locations on Belle Isle — a staple of outdoor recreation in Richmond, Virginia. Located along the Fall Line in the James River, Belle Isle’s story is inextricably linked to its hydrology. From fish farming to power sourcing, the island has always found a way to utilize its strategic setting. However, its industrial structures remain, and today it is a place for people. The goal is to improve island-wide accessibility and visitor amenities, conserve native species and habitats, and refurbish old structures to be safer and more inviting.
The Belle Isle Vision Plan focuses on revealing and connecting four anchor locations on Belle Isle — a staple of outdoor recreation in Richmond, Virginia.
Located along the Fall Line in the James River, Belle Isle’s story is inextricably linked to its hydrology.
The goal is to improve island-wide accessibility and visitor amenities, conserve native species and habitats, and refurbish old structures to be safer and more inviting. The Hydroplant, the Rolling Mill Garden, the Quarry, and the Meadows are the spaces of focus for this project and the Vision Plan highlights their potential to enhance the island.
Working with the City of Richmond, the Friends of James River Parks, and the folks at James River Parks, the landscape architect worked to unearth the latent potential of Belle Isle.
We translated all that was expressed and made the bold suggestion to adaptively reuse many of the defunct structures that were originally recommended for removal.
- Location
- Richmond, VA
- Client
- The City of Richmond, Friends of James River Park
- Typology
- Public
- Size
- 54 Acres
- Design Team
- Tyler Silvestro, Chieh Huang, Mitch Crowder, Tonghuan Wu, Bay Penny, Aki Fangzhou Zhao
- Awards
- ASLA New York Merit Award, VA ASLA Merit Award
