By: Mary Beth Almond | Rochester Post | Published June 2, 2026
ROCHESTER HILLS — “This place is really special to me and, hopefully, special to you,” Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett told the crowd as he officially opened the city’s newest park, Brooklands Plaza, to the community May 21.
The approximately $1.5 million park — located in a formerly vacant space adjacent to the Brooklands Splash Pad at 1585 E. Auburn Road — features a gathering place, including a small playground, pathways, bench seating, a calming water feature, community art from the Art on Auburn 2 program and more.
“It’s a small park, but an important park, and it’s an exciting addition to our park system,” said Ken Elwert, the city’s director of parks and natural resources.
“There are many things in this small space — an active playground, bubbling water, community art, a calm place for neighbors to have lunch or just sit and relax,” Elwert said. “That’s really what we do in parks: bring neighbors, nature and history together.”
A large mural by Paint Creek Center for the Arts faculty member and artist Kären Childs Elder, of Oakland Township, was unveiled during the event.
“I am so thrilled and delighted,” she said of her work being highlighted in the plaza.
Childs Elder, who has a degree in fine art from Toronto’s Ontario College of Art & Design University, said she painted the mural of a child and a mother wading in the Paint Creek from a photo her husband took of her and their daughter in Rochester Park years ago. She primarily focuses on landscape painting in oil and pastel, and acrylic pours and painting, as well as pencil portraiture, and has taught both adults and children for over 30 years.
Right next to the new park is the city’s first splash pad, which opened in 2021.
The city was awarded a $756,695 grant through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Revitalization and Placemaking program for the development of the Brooklands Plaza that city officials said covered nearly half of the cost of the enhancements. The rest, Barnett said, was paid for by the city.
The city also received a small grant from the Greater Metropolitan Association of Realtors to support Art on Auburn 2, a community art project bringing 20 pieces of local art from community members of all ages to the sidewalks inside Brooklands Plaza.
Brooklands, Barnett noted, is the city’s oldest neighborhood.
“This is an area of town that if you were here five years ago, it would look dramatically different,” he said. “We had a road that had a 45 mph speed limit, and you could pull in off the road at any time into any of the businesses. There were hardly any walkers, no bikers, no kids, and it certainly looked dramatically different.”
In 2020, the city’s Auburn Road corridor project transformed Auburn Road between Culbertson Avenue and Hessel Avenue into a downtown district-like atmosphere with improved safety, including a center median and two roundabouts, on-street parking, improved pedestrian facilities, sidewalks, streetscape enhancements, landscaping and lighting, as well as new rain gardens, improved parallel alleyways north and south of Auburn Road, and the city’s first public parking lot.
Barnett said having public spaces that are easily accessible along the revitalized corridor will attract businesses and improve the overall quality of life for the neighbors in the Brooklands.
“One of my favorite things about this job is being able to create community. We’ve invested a lot in parks, and this is just another small story that we’re telling about who we are and what we value as a city,” he said.
Brooklands Plaza, 1585 E. Auburn Road, is open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. The splash pad and restrooms are open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. May 1 through Sept. 30. For more information, call the city of Rochester Hills at (248) 656-4600.