Concepts for Cedar Rapids flood memorial plaza to be unveiled

CEDAR RAPIDS - The public is invited to attend an open house and see concepts and provide feedback on a proposed flood memorial in Cedar Rapids' Time Check Neighborhood.

The meeting takes place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Northwest Recreation Center, 1340 11th St. NW.

Concepts for the memorial center around what is being called 'Gateway to the River Memorial Plaza,” which would be built along O Avenue NW between Ellis Boulevard NW and Sixth Street NW.

City officials said the plaza would provide a transition from a re-emerging neighborhood to the recreational green spaces adjacent to the Cedar River. With the future Flood Control System levee as a backdrop, the plaza would create an environment suitable for quiet remembrance as well as a stopping point along the trail.

One element of the plaza would be the $250,000, 26-foot-tall 'West Side Rising” sculpture - a tribute to the neighborhood's recovery and persistence following the 2008 flood in which the Cedar River crested at 31.2 feet. A private group has been leading the sculpture design and fundraising campaign with construction anticipated in 2018.

'The idea came from many individuals in the neighborhood, who lost their homes, lost their sense of identity because of the loss of the neighborhood,” Al Pierson, owner of Pierson's Flower Shop & Greenhouses, 1800 Ellis Blvd. NW, and president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, told The Gazette for a story in August. 'While we've rebuilt over 100 homes in the area, people felt they lost where they've grown up.”

Other elements proposed for the plaza include native landscaping, a memorial wall, paving, seating areas, spaces large enough for neighborhood events and spaces small enough for solitary reflection.

Permanent flood control for the Time Check Neighborhood is to be a combination of levees and gates, integrated with greenways and recreational fields.

Since its adoption in 2015, the Flood Control System Master Plan has called for the incorporation of aesthetic elements that reflect the community's culture and history.