Lake Charles lakefront promenade wins excellence award

A vibrant pedestrian promenade spanning the Lake Charles lakefront designed by Louisiana firm Moore Planning Group won a DOTD Transportation Excellence Award yesterday in Baton Rouge. The promenade, which officially opened in September 2010, earned top honors in a $10 million-or-less infrastructure category during the state agency’s annual conference and awards luncheon. “This project gives the people of Lake Charles access to their lakefront in a stunning new way,” says Patrick Moore, former managing principal of Moore Planning Group, LLC, now a partner and U.S. Southern Division Planning Leader with Environmental Resources Management. “We anticipate this project will be a tremendous catalyst for ongoing development in downtown Lake Charles, which has shown impressive tenacity and innovation in the five years since Hurricane Rita.” The $4.6 million Lakefront Promenade includes 2,700 linear feet of new work, including decorative column lighting, trees and landscaping, public art, shaded seating structures, educational interpretive signage and viewing devices. Along the promenade, four cultural plazas named Schooner Landing, Founders Landing, Louisiana Landing and Lake Charles Landing depict significant moments in Lake Charles’s history. They have been designed to reflect the region’s vernacular and culture. The firm’s work in Lake Charles as well as a streetscape master plan for Crowley and a land-use plan for the city of Central won awards from the Louisiana Chapter of the American Planning Association. Moore Planning Group won three of the 11 honors.