“Songs of Selma” (a title taken from the 13th C. poem that inspired the city’s name) is a park located on Water Street along the Alabama River at the foot of the Pettus Bridge. It was from this location that in 1965 Martin Luther King Jr. initiated the historic civil rights march to Montgomery. The design charge was to create a public space and landmark, a place of identity and civic function for all of Selma’s citizens.
The design structures a terraced journey, first drawing citizens through a gateway into the street level plaza containing an arbor and pavilion…places for gatherings and collective events. Housed under the pavilion are paving stones inscribed with various stories significant to Selma’s history. Passing through the pavilion and upper plaza, visitors then descend a grand staircase to a second plaza ordered by a gridded grove of flowering trees...the “garden”. At this plaza’s end is an overlook to the river where a visitor is prompted to pause. One can choose to continue on to another descent, coming to a third space…a lower, more quiet, detached space close to the river and to Selma’s roots. The reverse trip is an ascension, returning oneself to present day life and the city.
The park’s steel and brick detailing draws from existing surroundings, in particular the context of Water Street, it being among Selma’s founding locations.
The Architecture of urban spaces initiates “place” for the collective and the individual experience.
John Lucas Architect (with Clark Lundell and Richard Rome)