Work began in January, with the demolition of an old First Ward school building on the 1.25 acres of land, which is owned by the Charlotte Mecklenburg schools and located next to First Ward Creative Arts Academy in northeast uptown.
Students are coming back to a newly renovated school. The school has transformed with demolition and removal of several old buildings to create more space for the new and improved campus.
The Wells Fargo Foundation unveiled plans to give $160,000 in cash and services to the project in April 2012, during the Charlotte Center City Partner’s Vision Awards. The event honors those who have made Charlotte’s urban core more vibrant. Bank officials came up with that amount in commemoration of Wells Fargo’s 160th anniversary.
The total cost is estimated at $200,000, said officials, who predicted the remaining money would come from smaller grants, gifts and donated services.
Organizers hope the park will be finished in time for the arrival of the Democratic National Convention in September, and speculate that it could serve as the site of some convention activities. The site is about five blocks from Time Warner Cable Arena, between North Brevard and North Caldwell streets,
Features will include a recreational green, performance stage, a bird and insect garden, and at least one commissioned sculpture.
School officials said they plan to name it the Wells Fargo Sense and Science Garden.
Wells Fargo officials liken it to The Green on South Tryon Street, another small uptown park (1.5 acres) that attracts thousands of people annually to its walking trails, green space and fountain.
The idea for the park was born over a year ago, when staff at First Ward suggested the old building on the school’s grounds be torn down and replaced with trees through the Charlotte Public Tree Fund. However, in the months that followed, the idea caught the attention of backers like Center City Partners and Wells Fargo Foundation, which liked the innovation of a park serving both students and the public.
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