The Mill River Collaborative is a partnership of civic, government, and business interests committed to creating and sustaining a successful Mill River Park & Greenway. Its vision is to have a world-class urban park in the Mill River Corridor that will serve as both an oasis in city life and a vibrant, diverse green space for the Stamford community.

Mill River Collaborative is a 501c3 non-profit corporation. Donations to the Collaborative are tax deductible as provided by law.

Mill River Collaborative’s mission is to provide collaborative leadership to create and sustain a successful Mill River Park & Greenway.  The Collaborative works to marshal private sector support and funding for the park to match the public sector investments from the city, state and federal governments.


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In addition to building an inviting and exciting park and greenway, Mill River Collaborative is committed to assuring the resources to maintain it over the years at a very high standard.
     

Park Development

Beginning in 2004 the Collaborative provided the first full-time project coordination for Mill River Park.

The work of the city departments, the Army Corps of Engineers, the design team and other parties in planning designing and building the park are coordinated by the Collaborative’s Executive Director.  

The Collaborative’s board, lead by its Chairman, Arthur Selkowitz, plays an very active role in creating the conditions for the successful implementation and operation of the park.

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Design

The Collaborative initiated the plan to hire a top landscape Architect to assemble a team to design Mill River Park in 2004 and raised $200,000 from private donors toward the initial design fee. Olin Partnership was retained by the City as the park designers and the Collaborative negotiated for the Army Corps of Engineers to collaborate with Olin in the design of its river restoration project.

The resulting design is unique among Army Corps projects incorporating many of the latest advances in bioengineering to avoid excessive “armoring” of the banks with rip rap and containing beautiful plantings on a compelling landscape that are appropriate for the premier downtown park of a robust City like Stamford. The Mill River Park & Greenway Master Plan was released by Olin in summer 2007.

The Collaborative is now coordinating Olin’s role in preparing construction contract documents for substantial areas of the park expected to be built over the next few years.

Operations and Maintenance

The Collaborative is partnering with the City of Stamford to make sure that, as sections of the park are completed, that they are maintained at a high standard and that the resources are available for that purpose. The Collaborative has developed an operations and maintenance plan under which it will assume major responsibilities for the park’s implementation, upkeep and operations.