Westland Tattan Park & Farmers Market

Enhancements Complement Existing Features at Signature Community Park

The City of Westland, Michigan wished to redevelop Tattan Park—a tract at the northern anchor of Westland’s Central City Park. The city used $3.5 million in funding obtained to improve the site, working in close collaboration with OHM Advisors to enhance existing features like the community splash pad and park-framing waterway. The entire effort was part of a larger, comprehensive community master plan for Central City Park that has been implemented in thoughtful stages and now offers residents a thriving community hub.

At Tattan Park, our combined team of architects, landscape architects and engineers designed new picnic shelters, concessions, restrooms, a modified park-wide drainage system, and a transformed stormwater retention area equipped with environmental features that positively impact system water flow. The park’s existing splash pad remains, refreshed and expanded for more users. It now offers defined entry points and drop-off locations to ease circulation and increase safety, as well as a central seating space connecting the splash pad to the playground. Aesthetic improvements abound through the park with the additions of new plantings and decorative rock walls.

Completely new to the area are a year-round event space and structure for the two-acre Westland Farmers Market—a product of months of planning and community engagement with people eager to use a central space for lively social gathering. It accommodates not just a traditional farmers market, but also diverse activities programming, a performance stage and ‘great lawn’, a community meeting and event facility, outdoor café space, and vibrant environmental features in a children’s ‘hidden’ garden and wetland interpretive area.  

Together, the transformative spaces offer opportunities for a dynamic mixture of events, activities, recreation, learning, and relaxing public space for the Westland community.

Project Highlights: park, public space, recreation, landscape architecture, stormwater management, architecture