The empty lot next to UNO Center, at left, will have gardens, benches, basketball and bocce.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The "UNO Park" sign was installed months ago above the grassy lot that once held a tire service center at the corner of Houghton and River streets.
The UNO Center next door opened last year; now the "park" part is finally coming to fruition.
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art will help develop the vacant lot into a community park with five community gardens, a half-court basketball court, a badminton court and a bocce ball court.
"It's going to be amazing," said UNO founder Shirley Davis on Thursday. "I didn't want a fence so it's going to have shrubs around. It's going to have pear trees so we can make pies. It's going to be so nice to see."
Mass MoCA Deputy Director Larry Smallwood informed the Planning Board on Monday of the park plans. Berkshire Hills Development Co., which owns the Porches Inn, is transferring the property to the museum along with the capital to make the improvements.
It's the latest move by city philanthropist John "Jack" Wadsworth, a Berkshire Hills principal, who seems to have single-handedly improved the once problematic intersection next to his hotel and the museum.
He purchased both the tire center and the former bar that became a home for the 25-year-old United Neighborhood Organization, and well as a dilapidated building on the west side of the street that has since been razed.
Wadsworth made the UNO Center happen, and Davis said he has been involved with the planning for the new park.
Smallwood said any recreational equipment would be checked out through UNO and that Mass MoCA will take care of the maintenance.
"The hope is that the community will use the park in these ways and other ways that we don't know about yet, mostly through the UNO center that will be the liaison between the town and Mass MoCA, who will be the production back up," Smallwood said. "We want to do something that is great for the city and we want everybody to be involved."
He said there are plans to hold community movie nights on the field and he said it may be a great location for the farmers market.
Davis had expected work on the park to have started by now, but was confident it would start soon and be "amazing."
"We're going to fix it up and it's going to be beautiful," she said. "The kids can play and people can just visit on the benches and chill. It should be real nice when it's done."
