Project Overview

Once a sunken plaza disconnected from its surroundings, Miller Park has been reinvented as an accessible civic destination in the heart of Chattanooga. Completed in 2018, the new park welcomes everyday visitors while accommodating concerts, cultural programming, and more than 200 public events each year.

Trees were central to that transformation. Thirty-seven maples were planted in over 1,300 (2x) Silva Cells containing 44,607 cubic feet of soil — an exceptional average of 1,206 cubic feet per tree. Nearly a decade later, that underground investment is supporting a robust downtown canopy while also helping manage stormwater beneath the park and surrounding streetscape.

A Downtown Park Reconnected

Originally developed in the 1970s, Miller Park’s sunken design created a physical separation between the park and the city around it. Despite its central location near City Hall and the Chattanooga Public Library, the space did not feel like an inviting or natural extension of downtown.

Working with the City of Chattanooga, the landscape design team at Spackman Mossop Michaels raised the park to street level and used a shared-street approach along Martin Luther King Boulevard to connect it with the adjacent Miller Plaza. Extensive community engagement helped shape a flexible public space with open lawn, seating, gathering areas, and a technologically equipped performance pavilion. The result is what Chattanooga now calls its modern public square: a welcoming destination designed to bring people together.

1,200 Cubic Feet of Soil per Tree

A successful downtown canopy begins with what’s available below the surface. At Miller Park, 1,302 (2x) Silva Cells provide 44,607 cubic feet of lightly compacted planting soil for 37 trees — 19 street trees around the park and 18 trees within the plaza.

That works out to an average of 1,206 cubic feet of soil per tree. Above this soil, the Silva Cell frames support pedestrian pavement and surrounding infrastructure. Below it, roots have room to expand without lifting or disrupting the public space overhead. The installations follow the park’s combination of linear streetscape runs, curved edges, and gathering spaces while placing substantial soil volume wherever the trees need it.

Downtown Canopy Takes Shape

Installed in 2017, Miller Park’s trees are now approaching a decade of growth. Their expanding crowns bring shade, greenery, and comfortable human scale to a heavily used downtown space, framing the park’s walkways, seating areas, and gathering places. The growing canopy demonstrates the long-term value of investing below the surface. By giving its trees more than 1,200 cubic feet of soil apiece — and connecting many of those trees through shared rooting zones — Chattanooga created the foundation for a healthier urban forest at the center of one of its most important civic destinations.