The Watchung Lake project began with a visual impact analysis of raising the earthen dam to prevent overtopping. The next phase was a one page wish list of things the town wanted incorporated into a plan for the park surrounding the lake. Next were questions of dredging depths, shoreline modification, and spillway design. The dredging, shoreline modifications, and spillway are the only elements built to date.

The following sketches show yet to be built design elements, including basalt boulders in the spillway and the stilling basin which would recall the nearby outcrops at Wetumpka Falls and animate the water play. The tinting and sandblasting of the concrete will not be done but would have mimicked the native stone colors, softened the impact of the concrete, and provided a safer walking surface. The ice tong sculpture in the skating rink framed by an amphitheatre of basalt stone seating would have recalled the history of the site as this was the location of the ice house in the days when ice was harvested on Watchung Lake.