City Celebrates Official Opening of City Hall Entrance, Shain Park

Birmingham celebrated the official grand reopening of two city landmarks Monday night with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly renovated and front entrance for the .

“This moment is 35 years in the making,” Mayor Gordon Rinschler said at the 7 p.m. ceremony held on the newly open, sunny front steps of City Hall. The Martin Street entrance has been closed off for more than a year for renovation and the reconstruction of Martin Street.

With gleaming front steps and newly laid sod, everyone from members of the Birmingham City Commission, county Commissioner David Potts (R-20th District) to state Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham) gathered Monday evening before the regularly scheduled city commission meeting.

Rinschler said serious planning for the two projects began in 2005 and construction on the park and municipal building didn’t begin until 2009. However planning for the project formally began in 1996 while the dream of reinventing Shain Park has been on the minds of commissioners for decades, Rinschler said.

Shain Park — complete with a performance pavilion, giant granite balls, fountain and the sculpture Freedom of the Human Spirit — has been open to the public since last year.

The city was awarded a Metro Detroit American Public Works Association (APWA) award in the category “Transportation — Less than $5 Million” for the Shain Park Streets Project, which included the additon of diagonal parking on Martin Street. According to Robert Fox, former president of AWPA, the additional parking more than made up for the parking lost after the Shain Park renovation took over half the parking lot alongside Townsend Street.

The project also received an award from the Michigan Concrete Association in the "Residential Streets" category.

With more than 30 projects vying for the award, Fox said only 17 jurisdictions throughout Metro Detroit were recognized for their work in improving infrastructure.

“It’s due to the collective efforts of the residents of this city, this City Commission … (and) the people who took this vision and made it a reality,” Fox said.

Those people include at least members from three City Commissions, city engineer Paul O’Meara and project architect Ron Rea, whom Rinschler specifically honored during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Rinschler said completing a project such as this during tough economic times speaks to the character of the city and its residents.

“We have a tremendous number of things to be proud of in this city," he said.