San Bernardino taps Riverside firm to revamp Seccombe Lake Park – San Bernardino Sun

A Riverside firm skilled in rehabilitating and renovating parks will design a new-look Seccombe Lake Park in downtown San Bernardino.

In the coming months, RHA Landscape Architects-Planners will complete design and construction documents for the highly anticipated revitalization project, for which city leaders have dedicated $9 million in federal coronavirus relief funds and another $1 million in grant funding from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

City leaders approved a $538,000 contract with the firm last week.

In its pitch for the job, RHA made clear the big-ticket project will give the second-largest open space in town “new life.”

“Seccombe Lake Park,” the proposal reads, “is such a beautiful park and will have so much to offer the community when it is revitalized and new amenities are added.”

RHA has designed hundreds of parks of all sizes across Southern California.

The firm’s vast portfolio includes California Citrus State Historic Park, Rancho Jurupa Regional Park and Orange Terrace Community Park in Riverside, Fergusson and Northwest parks in Rialto, and Electric Park in San Bernardino.

RHA also planned the Orange Blossom Trail in Redlands.

Among the amenities slated for Seccombe Lake Park are a walking and biking trail, two playgrounds, picnic tables with umbrellas, doggie stations, decorative lighting and new restrooms. RHA intends to restore the center island and gazebo, and renovate the baseball fields.

Two main entry archways with “Seccombe Lake Park” on them have been proposed, as have aquatic art pieces.

Plans for the park could come to the city for approval by year’s end, according to a tentative project timeline.

“The Seccombe Lake Park Revitalization project will re-create a sense of place and become a gathering point for people living and working in the downtown area,” RHA wrote in its pitch. “It will be a place to hold events, gatherings, meet neighbors and make new friends.

“This park will help build a safer community,” RHA continued, “provide a place for children to play and interact, walkers to walk and exercise, and a place to relax and enjoy the outdoors.”