Check out Ellen Kort Peace Park designs

APPLETON - There's no final design yet, but officials are working on early sketches of the Ellen Kort Peace Park.

The waterfront park, which was approved last April by the Common Council, will be located on a former brownfield site on Water Street, just west of the Oneida Skyline Bridge. In the city's capital budget, $50,000 was designated between 2017 and 2018 to start design work. Construction, estimated at $500,000, would begin in 2019.

City officials held an open house last week to present the two conceptual designs and get feedback from residents. Overall, both designs include two large circular lawn spaces and one smaller space in the shape of a peace sign called a "peace ring." There's also plans for a gazebo, a space for sculptures, a butterfly garden, a quilt garden and more.

The most noticeable difference between the two designs is that in design 1, a short bridge connects the park to a small island just southeast into the Fox River. In design 2, that bridge doesn't exist, and, instead, includes a walkway that extends into the water slightly.

A final design would need approval from the Parks and Recreation Committee and then the full Common Council. The concepts released this month are intended to garner ideas and move ahead with a specific plan and budget for the project.

Design 1 for Ellen Kort Peace Park. (Photo: City of Appleton)

Design 2 for the Ellen Kort Peace Park. (Photo: City of Appleton)

The park is named in honor of Kort, who died in 2015 at age 79 and was Wisconsin's first poet laureate. She held the title from 2000 to 2004.

Kort's poetry is seen throughout the Fox Valley, in places like the Fox River Mall, Appleton Medical Center, Appleton Police Department, Appleton Public Library and the Green Bay Botanical Gardens.

She is the author of 12 books, seven of which were poetry. She also received numerous prizes for her work, including the Pablo Neruda Literary Prize for Poetry, Columbia Pacific Review Poetry Award and Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Prize for Poetry.

Madeleine Behr: 920-996-7226, or mbehr@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @madeleinebehr