Students from West Virginia University (WVU) are bringing fresh ideas to community revitalization efforts in Allegany County. 
Through a partnership with the WVU Landscape Architecture Program, the City of Cumberland, and Allegany County Economic and Community Development (ACECD), the Wills Creek corridor in Cumberland, Maryland, has been the focus of a student-led design project to consider its potential as a central connector for the city and a catalyst for economic prosperity.
Wills Creek, a 38.6-mile-long tributary of the North Branch Potomac River, has long been both an asset and a challenge for the city of Cumberland. Concrete walls added in the 1950s to mitigate flooding have effectively protected the area but also created a physical barrier between the east and west sides.
Supported by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the project focuses on improving Wills Creek’s role in the community, examining how environmental and social design could create new opportunities for businesses, residents, and visitors.
The initiative, led by Dr. Stefania Staniscia, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture in WVU’s School of Design and Community Development, gave senior students in the landscape architecture program an opportunity to apply their expertise to real-world challenges while encouraging fresh perspectives on how the creek might be used in the future. This valuable offering from WVU allows landscape architecture students to apply their skills to real-world community design challenges.
For Allegany County and the City of Cumberland, reimagining Wills Creek’s potential allows for discussions on how revitalization efforts might stimulate economic growth.
Adam Strott, ACECD Economic Development Specialist, notes, “This initiative is about reimagining Wills Creek’s potential—exploring how we can transform an underutilized brownfield site into a dynamic public space that attracts investment, creates opportunities, and enhances the quality of life for our residents.”
Dr. Staniscia emphasized that academic exercises like this help explore different ways to think about flood mitigation while considering new uses for the creek. “Wills Creek doesn’t have to be the way it is,” she explained. “There are so many ways to address flooding issues…and I’m not saying making it to return to what it was; that would be impossible. But in my mind—that’s the biggest challenge—to see the creek from a different perspective.”
To learn more about this initiative, see the full release, Reimagining Wills Creek as a Community Connector.
