Ossian Hall Park Gets a Facelift

Improvements at Ossian Hall Park in Annandale are almost complete. The park, which was been under construction since 2006, is scheduled to re-open to the public in November—just a few weeks later than originally planned.

Before construction began on Ossian Hall, members of the community no longer felt safe visiting the park, said Fairfax County Park Authority Public Information Officer Judy Pedersen. The park is located at 7900 Heritage Drive, near Annandale High and Braddock Elementary schools.

To fix this, the Park Authority worked with the Braddock District Supervisor's office and members of the community to implement a multi-phase renewal plan that would revitalize Ossian Hall and improve the park overall.

The construction was split into two parts. Much of "Phase 1" construction began in 2006 and went toward upgrading the appearance of the park in order to make it more welcoming to visitors. Older park signs were replaced with newer ones, the park entrance notes were redesigned, and paved paths replaced dirt paths.

The amount of tree coverage in the park concerned the Park Authority, neighborhood police, and residents because it impacted the safety of park visitors. Due to the size of the trees, police officers were unable to see inside the park from the street.

"That was really preventing us from giving park users a sense of security when they're in the park, so we thinned those trees, and the result is a much brighter, a different and welcoming environment that makes people feel good about being there rather than at risk," Pedersen said.

The new visibility provided by the thinner trees has already helped boost the popularity of Ossian Hall. As a result, the Ossian Hall Concert Series was developed. Similar to its sister program, the Braddock Nights series, Ossian Hall's concert series features live music acts. The performers are chosen to reflect the diverse community surrounding Ossian Hall and the many different ethnicities that live around it.

"[Ossian Hall] has been one of our more successful concert venues," said Pedersen. The series is made possible through the FCPA Community Connections program. All concerts are free and sometimes include performances from members of the community. "It's been a great way for the community to get to know itself and see its own diversity."

Originally scheduled for completion in October, Phase II will now be completed in mid-November in order to complete the newest addition to the plan: an open play area that will be converted to a rectangular playing field with synthetic turf.

"That's quite a big addition" said Pedersen. "Synthetic turf fields give us a 62 percent increase in capacity overall." Thanks to numerous favorable bids on the project, the Park Authority was able to expand the scope of the Ossian Hall construction. "If the bids come lower, then we can do either more work or save those dollars."  Pedersen explained. "There's so many contractors eager for work, so we're getting favorable bids on my many projects to either accelerate or expand projects across the board."

According to Deborah Garris, Manager for the Synthetic Turf Branch of the Planning and Development Division at the Park Authority, the total approved budget for the Ossian Hall Park improvements is $2.77 million. That covers the cost of permits, design services, utility installations, water and electric services in addition to the cost of construction. Outside of the money from the 2008 Park Bond that was used to pay for the renovation, a HUD grant of $49,000 to the Park Authority helped to pay for two new, lighted multi-purpose courts.

Phase II also will see the installation of the two courts and a lighted parking lot with 120 spaces (54 of which will be reserved for use by Fairfax County Public Schools), a community plaza area with architectural features and a brand new stormwater management system.

One of the most unique features to the park is the underground storage system. Designed to be more environmentally friendly, the "underground pond" as Section Manager of the Synthetic Turf Divison Eric Brunner called it, will store stormwater that runs off into a cavern beneath the parking lot and run it through a filtration system before it leaves the site. The other parts to the system are the bio-retention filter and infiltration trench above ground. Instead of a piping system, the water will feed back into the groundwater system. "It's a very natural process," said Brunner. "The water goes over the stone and then infiltrates back down into the water table."

Ossian Hall is the first Park Authority site to use this technique. "This underground facility is the first one that we have on park property, so we're very excited to see how it proceeds," said Brunner.

The Park Authority says it will have limited constuction activity during schools, particularly between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Pedersen says the Park Authority has worked closely with Annandale High School and the Fairfax County Public Schools Park Authority Board of Supervisors to ensure the "construction footprint is as small as possible."

Once complete, the Park Authority is confident that residents will enjoy the new Ossian Hall Park. "This is such an appropriate, natural extension of a community amenity. We anticipate that only good things are ahead," said Pedersen.