The park at the Town Hall in Lørenskog has become the new cultural venue.
The park was completed in time to celebrate the municipality's 100th anniversary in August 2008 with 10,000 visitors on the first day. Phase 2 will be completed during 2009.
The park is in constant use with nursery schools and school children using it during winter days for skating and tobogganing on the ice rink and in summer for concerts, picnics, fly fishing courses, fishing, kiting, remote controlled boats and airplanes, feeding of ducks and so on.
The park is located close to the town centre in beautiful natural surroundings close to the Town Hall, to Lake Langevann, to the new Mailand High Schhol and also to Kjenn Junior School. Lørenskog municipality lies to the north of Oslo and is about a15min commute. It is poised to carry out a comprehensive downtown expansion in which the large, new arts centre, "Lørenskog House", will be an important element. The new park is linked to the new Lørenskog centre via a new, soon to be opened pedestrian bridge over Route 159.
With the new downtown development, the expansion of Ahus (Akershus University Hospital) and the jobs provided there and the establishment of new large mail terminal for the Norwegian postal services within a few miles radius of the park, there is also a need for attractive green spaces, footpaths and bike paths that bind it all together. The park at Town Hall will acquire a whole new status.
The park at the Town Hall is located in a well-established recreational area that has commonly been used for concerts, performances and as a recreational area for the city's inhabitants. Particularly in winter the sloping grassy site has been an attractive toboggan run.
The landscape architects have carried out a significant expansion of the park and extensive work has been carried out on the terrain including dams and embankments of up to 7 meters. The topography includes a basin and a ridge which create a rolling landscape. A double row of 170 cherry trees have been planted along the main walkway and these frame the park in a curve, from which pathways link it to schools and the downtown area. The decking is called a barricade cover made of bonded gravel.
The granite amphitheater is built into the basin of the terrain, facing towards a small stage with wooden decking and framed by granite edging. The stage is for smaller productions, whereas for larger performances, assumed to take place a couple of times a year, a free standing stage can be mounted either over or beside the existing smaller stage. The surrounding grass surface has reinforcement underneath to allow semi-trailers to drive over it to supply equipment for larger productions
The open grassy landscape has been kept for the popular toboggan run and to provide seating options for major concerts and events, so all the activities take place on the outer edge of the open space. Two sand-volleyball courts have been built at the lower end of the park beside a pathway with a small grass hill which serves as a tribune. This area has picnic tables, chairs, tables, bike racks and a water point around the courts so it will become a natural meeting point for young people and an activity area during the summer. A long table with benches, barbecue grills and a playground sculpture has been built beside the 300 year old, Swedish pine, which has a protection order over it, down at the water’s edge in the north.
In wetland area around Lake Langevann a winding wooden adventure path has been built with three wooden and granite piers. One hundred and thirty 4 – 8m long wooden poles have been used to mount a pontoon of oiled pinewood in the wetlands masses creating an attraction during the summer months. This provides close contact with the water and the opportunity to see the water plants of cat’s tail, sedge and water lily as they change through the seasons. The pier is already in use by anglers.
The 170 cherry trees along the walkway are a specialised type, sourced in Sweden, that are bred to tolerate the harsh Norwegian winter climate, along with 700 new rhododendrons planted at the edge of the forest edge. 50,000 bulbs of various types have been planted the grass which will be a magnificent sight during spring blossoming.
Lørenskog has a multi-cultural population with over 100 different nationalities and this has inspired the engraving on granite benches of the word "Welcome" in15 of the major languages represented in the municipality.
In connection with the planning of the park a sculpture competition was held among renowned artists and was won by Kjersti Wexelsen Goksøyr’s sculpture “Unity “. Lørenskog municipality aims to install several sculptures in the park so that in time it will also become a sculpture park.
