Resident's design to be built by summer

A resident of Riverwood Plantation won a design contest that will be used as a landscaping plan for the roundabout at the entry of Riverwood Parkway.

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"It was really a toss-up for a while," said Peter Slavovsky, an architect for Riverwood Plantation.

Five finalists competed for the first-place spot, but Ken Elliott won with his design, which included bright flowers, three crape myrtles and four stone pillars to be placed in the middle of the roundabout, which is about 75 feet in diameter.

"I personally felt it would be a great idea just to give it a shot," Elliott said. "I've never done anything like that before."

Elliott, who is from England, said that he has traveled the world as an aircraft electronics engineer and that those experiences influenced his design.

Slavovsky and four other people made up the jury and chose the contest winner.

Entries were judged on the design's appropriateness, presentation, adherence to the contest's guidelines and maintenance of the objectives of Riverwood Plantation.

The pillars will be 5 to 6 feet tall and will emit light in the evening and coincide with each traffic spoke of the roundabout.

"He has measured everything and put a lot of thought into how all of this should work," Slavovsky said.

The contest was open to pupils from Greenbrier Elementary, Middle and High schools and the residents of Riverwood Parkway.

The jury evaluated 18 design entries. One contestant submitted a model, but most turned in diagrams or drawings.

Many of the designs incorporated fountains.

"The reason I didn't go for a fountain was because of maintenance, and very often you see fountains turned off," Elliott said.

Before work on the landscaping can begin, Slavovsky said, minor adjustments might be made to the winning design.

"We would like to build it by this summer," he said. "We need to take this design and massage it a bit."

Work is projected to begin on the Village Center and Town Center sites off Riverwood Parkway in early summer.

The roundabout's function then will become evident, Slavovsky said.

"People don't like to slow down and drive around something that they don't fully understand, but when the two entryways into the Village happen, they'll understand why (the roundabout) is there," he said. "Right now, they can't visualize it."