Vera Ames Community Park

French & Parrello Associates (FPA) was retained by the City of Paterson to provide professional engineering, landscape architecture, design, and construction administration services for the renovation of Vera Ames Community Park (formerly Wrigley Park). The project focused on modernizing and revitalizing this full city-block neighborhood park to create a more engaging and accessible recreational space for residents of all ages.

FPA’s scope included the complete rehabilitation and redesign of the park’s multiple playground areas, incorporating new, age-appropriate play equipment and surfacing. A musically themed concept was developed for the playground and splash pad areas, integrating interactive features that encourage creativity. The existing splash pad was removed and relocated, allowing for the construction of a new, upgraded splash park that reinforces the musical theme while better supporting park programming. The project also included the full reconstruction and realignment of the park’s two basketball courts, improving playability and compliance with standard court dimensions. New asphalt surfacing, long-lasting sport court coatings, updated striping, new hoops, benches, bleachers and a basketball-themed wall mural were provided to significantly enhance durability, appearance, and community enjoyment.

Additional improvements included pathway reconstruction, upgraded lighting throughout the park, restoration of the stone wall along the park’s perimeter, refurbishment of the community pavilion, and comprehensive landscape improvements such as plantings and lawn reseeding to complement the park’s mature tree canopy. The park serves a densely populated urban neighborhood and following construction will provide improved recreational infrastructure to over 16,000 people. Through these upgrades, FPA helped transform Vera Ames Community Park into a vibrant, modernized, and thematically unified recreation space.