City of Cohoes Canal Square Park

The City of Cohoes wished to reinvigorate its Historic Canal Square Park. LaBella prepared a Master Plan and provided design, a successful Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) submission, grant administration, and construction services to assist the City with its dream of reimagining the Historic Canal Square Park.

LaBella worked with the City to create a transformative space that allows for an array of uses including casual daily activities, the Cohoes Farmer’s Market, Rock the Block concerts and Music Hall receptions – all while promoting an already energetic connectivity to downtown Cohoes, City Hall, the iconic Cohoes Music Hall, and surrounding residential neighborhoods. In keeping with the Entertainment District’s theme, LaBella also designed a musical play area with percussion instruments and a porous rubber play surface.

Green infrastructure played a significant role in the design with funding through both New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) and New York State Office of Parks Recreation & Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP). LaBella worked with the City and EFC to creatively address stormwater management with a wide range of green infrastructure practices, including permeable pavers and flexi-pave, bioretention filters, tree boxes, and a subsurface rainwater harvesting system to support irrigation of site landscaping.

The City kicked off the park’s reopening with a Rock the Block concert, bringing Canal Square Park back to life again.