Forest Park is St. Louis, Missouri’s premier park. Originating as the site of the 1904 World’s Fair, it now provides an urban oasis filled with popular destinations and recreation. Since 1986 – Forest Park Forever – a private, nonprofit organization, has restored, maintained, and sustained Forest Park as one of America’s great urban public parks. They have embarked on a refinement to the 1995 Forest Park Master Plan with a focus on improving amenities along the park’s perimeter dual path recreational trail system.

Planning Design Studio was retained by Forest Park Forever to complete this master plan refinement. As part of that process, a thorough analysis of the existing conditions along the dual path system was completed. Graphic maps that located each amenity revealed gaps in the plan. User and public input was encouraged and solicited through a series of stakeholder interviews, a town hall public meeting, and an internet based user needs survey in order to gain a complete understanding of the community’s needs. Amenity standards were then devised to fill in those gaps. 

Recommendations were developed for future amenities along the dual path system and presented to the public for further input. The final master plan is currently being completed and will be presented to the Forest Park Advisory Board for adoption and eventual implementation as an update to the Forest Park Master Plan.