Chester featured in presentation on creating resilient public spaces beautifully Public invited to Aug. 21 event at Town Hall

By Cynthia Prairie
©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

A stone table down a stone path on a dead end street, its backdrop a swinging bridge. A gracefully curling bench surrounded by flowering perennials. A town-owned flood area, with trees planted along the embankment. A flat expanse of land once dotted with homes is now a riverside community gathering spot with walking paths, a pavilion and water loving plants.

Whether a pocket park or walking paths, landscape architecture can offer a multitude of benefits to a community, from creating inviting outdoor spaces to protecting homes and businesses from the ever-increasing threat of floods.

The town of Chester will be highlighted as the Vermont chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects hosts its second annual Site Tour Day, exploring the many changes that have occurred to Chester’s Village streetscape over the past 20 or so years. Those changes have come from a multitude of sources, from charitable organizations such as Chester Townscape and The American Legion, private businesses such as Terrigenous Landscape Architecture and town government.

The public and other interested parties are invited to this free event, which will be held beginning at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 21 at Town Hall, 556 Elm St., with a presentation by Terrigenous owner Scott Wunderle. There will also be a light lunch at noon followed by a self-guided walking tour of completed project sites. Registration is encouraged by writing to vtasla@gmail.com.

VTASLA President Emily Lewis, of Dubois & King, said that the American Society of Landscape Architects is encouraging this type of outreach to engage the public and public officials to understand the profession of landscape architecture and its impact on the community.

“Our connection with Scott prompted us to choose Chester” for the second tour, Lewis said, adding that the first one was in Northfield, which experienced significant flooding during Tropical Storm Irene in August of 2011. Following the devastation, she said, 14 homes in one area took buyouts. Locals “removed the homes and reconnected with the flood plain. They turned it into a public park with walking paths, a pavilion, seating areas …  It helps the flood resiliency but also provides a public gathering space and connects with Northfield’s Town Common.”

Choosing Chester just made sense, Lewis said, since smaller towns like Chester are more indicative of Vermont and more relatable to Vermonters than larger ones. And Chester also was battered by Tropical Storm Irene losing a number of homes along the Middle Branch of the Williams River on Route 11 West.

Can something tangible come out of this event?

Lewis believes it can. “Landscape architecture can help influence public policy and legislation, including flood resiliency, and how to use different aspects of design instead of building flood walls. We can help realize different method of doing flood resiliency in communities. We have a foot in a lot of different areas and are involved in a lot of aspects of communities, people’s lives and how they use public space.” Lewis hopes such events will help influence policy at the local, state and federal levels.

Wunderle said the presentation he is creating will focus on Chester streetscapes, including the contributions of many volunteers, such as the American Legion’s flags, holiday lighting, and Chester Townscape plantings. He added that none of the projects are considered “big” in either cost or in scale, “but in small ways, they enhance the town.”

Wunderle said that what Chester can offer to others is an example of  how projects can be done by allowing “this adhoc relationship with the town and individuals who decide to do something. It adds to the bigger scale of the overall look of the town. The projects that get written about or draw attention are multi-million dollar, large scale things. But what about the smaller ones? What the town and its citizens have pulled together to create those smaller projects.”

He said one of the most successful projects has been the pocket park by the swinging bridge on School Street, which won a design award from the Vermont chapter of the ASLA. “A lot of folks use it. The materials already were available from the town or were salvaged or purchased.” Another is the town-owned, flood-prone property bounded by Depot Street, First Avenue and the Williams River, just south of the Stone Village and across the river from the Gristmill. “We planted those … trees right before Irene.” Some of those trees were uprooted and sent down river during the floods, but Wunderle said they found them and replanted them. … Those trees have held the river bank in place.”

“You don’t need rip rap if you have good plantings,” says Wunderle. “It’s critical when designers are working not to just create pretty spaces. The plantings have to fit the animals and insects, the flooding situation, the environment.”