Whimsy and Adaptability in Spokane Valley's New Park

Discovery Playground, a new park in Spokane Valley, Washington incorporates numerous whimsical and imaginative elements.  Working with Beechwood Metalworks and Playtime Creations, we incorporated sculptures of life-size and oversized animals, fish, and flowers among the play and learning activities.

The park's Secret Garden with Objects of Unusual Size incorporates giant flowers designed and created by Casey Lewis of Beechwood Metalworks, Inc. (pictured at above), a pumpkin large enough to stand in (pictured below), and a chair twice normal size.  The garden is entered by crouching through a small gateway that then reveals the giant objects inside.

The playground has been designed to accommodate children and adults of all abilities, and provide engaging and entertaining play as well as socialization and rehabilitation therapy opportunities.  The bear den (shown above) provides a great resting place for those who may need quiet time.  Additional elements such as interactive musical instrument coves, water play, climbing wall, colorful surfacing, sensory gardens and more are incorporated into the region’s first destination playground.

This project presented new challenges for all of those involved (the geology of Eastern Washington was new for us, and none of the local contractors had worked on a project as fanciful as this).  With the enthusiasm of the community, contractors and the City, everyone is sharing in the vision of the project.  We look forward to its completion in late November!

--Carol Henry

National Recreation and Park Association Annual Congress

Dispatch from Salt Lake City…

Once again it is time for the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) congress – this year in Salt Lake City. What a great time to be in Utah! It is beautiful here – if a bit windy. This year the Congress is looking a little smaller than usual, presumably due to budgets being slashed across the country. Still there is a great energy here. It is a great time to reconnect with old friends and past clients and see what is new in the world of parks and recreation (see photo).

This year’s keynote speaker, Jim Carroll, encouraged us to pay attention to the future – even embrace it with all of its changes. He emphasized that things are only going to happen faster and we need to be able to respond to keep up and move ahead. It is a good reminder during a time where we are working hard just to put out the fires around us. It is hard to look ahead, but we must do it. He challenged us to think about how parks and recreation can be more responsive, flexible, and on the cutting edge. I guess the response “because we’ve always done it that way” no longer applies.

What does this mean in terms of park design? Providing facilities that keep up with recreation trends? Wiring parks for internet access? Providing spaces for on-line social networking? Installing electronic play equipment? Creating “find a park” and “find a playground” apps for GPS enabled phones? Creating on-line virtual arboretums and amenities inventories for parks?  -OR- How about going the opposite direction, creating spaces where electronics are disabled to encourage face-to-face interaction?

When  I turn this question on my current work as a parks professional, I wonder – “What are we doing in our current work to address the future of parks and recreation?” In a presentation given by Karon Badalamenti of GreenPlay and I, we talked about the future of parks and recreation planning. In our latest projects we have been trying to figure out how to measure Level of Service that includes all things provided by parks and recreation agencies – not just counting things and drawing a circle around them. Ultimately we would like to be able to measure level of service based on quality of experience. That would include all parts of the experience from first thought to memories after. That level of information may really change the way that we look at what we are providing to the public. But we must act fast! The future is quickly approaching!

–Rachel Brenna

Meet the DC Team: Mark

Name: Mark Ballock
Number of years at DC: 3 years

Title: Landscape Architect in training

Where are you from?: I was born in Patuxent River, MD and raised in Mechanicsburg, PA.

Where did you go to school?: I started my college career bouncing around a few different schools in PA, then got my LA degree from Colorado State University.

What's one thing you can't live without?: My Mac.

Where is the farthest you have traveled?: Switzerland or maybe Denmark.

What's your favorite food?: Sushi, though chocolate comes in a close second.

What's your favorite part of working at Design Concepts?: I enjoy being exposed to many different facets of design and construction.

What would you do with $1 million?: I would spend some (read as: ‘lots'), save some, and give some away.

If you could be a professional athlete, what sport would you play?: Hockey.

If you could win any type of award, what award would it be?: A Nobel Prize would be pretty sweet.

What is your favorite movie?: Have seen too many great films to have a single favorite though "Pan’s Labyrinth" was the last movie I saw that really impressed me.

What inspires you?: Music and visual media.

What's one totally random fact about yourself?: I have red hair but nary a drop of Irish blood in me…

Smart Irrigation

Irrigation is one of the many facets of a project's design rendered in-house at Design Concepts. While many firms contract out the irrigation systems required for landscape design we feel it is as crucial a component as any and prefer to include it in the overall scope of a project .

In our efforts to promote water and energy conservation in irrigation design we have recently

been encouraging clients to utilize the advanced irrigation technology now available. Irrigation plans that employ central control systems use smart controllers to communicate either with area or on-site weather stations to determine watering timing and need (pictured left: the on-site station at Denver Botanic Gardens). Smart controllers adjusts for heat, rain, freezing conditions, and more. This helps to ensure that watering is

happening only when needed and thus conserves one of the most valuable resources in Colorado (pictured below: smart system rotary nozzles). Central control systems also promote healthier landscape because water needs are so precisely met. These systems are accessible remotely, allowing projects with few maintenance staff to run effective and conservative irrigation without needing to employ or educate a large number of people—saving money, water, and man-hours.

As these green smart systems are used in public spaces an opportunity for public education is created. DC is exploring including interpretive signage explaining weather station and other system components at sites were these types of irrigation systems are in place as well as interactive websites linked to the smart systems in place in the area.

Smart irrigation means water conservation, a cause DC is eager to promote in both project design and public education throughout the design process.

We also talked a little more about this stuff in a previous post.

Interpretive Signage at Centennial Park

Rifle’s Centennial Park, one of the projects Design Concepts is currently working on, presents new opportunities for creativity. One of the unique aspects is the wayside locations that are positioned throughout this riverside park. The community of Rifle’s (with specific input from the Historical Society and the Downtown Districts) wanted a passive park that people could move through and enjoy. Because it is along a river the park moves in a linear way that gave birth to the idea of the park’s features moving through time. Working under the park’s title—which had been chosen when the community initially decided a park would be built in conjunction with the celebration of its centennial—DC came up with the idea of incorporating both the town’s 100 year history as well as that century’s global history into several aspects of the park.

Each wayside is unique so that interest is maintained throughout the park and repetition is minimized. The park is comprised of 10 waysides, one for every decade the city has experienced. In each, different styles of interpretive signage convey information about the decade represented (see photo). The first decade, 1905-1915, conveys the town’s rich history with oil. The area is shaped like an oil Derek to represent the town’s oil industry with signage showing the cityscape in silhouette. The signs are artfully done and are meant to inspire multi-generational interest along with seating and other aspects unique to each wayside.

Read more about Centennial Park’s unique features on our website.

Utah Park

Kurt from our office was just up in Crested Butte accepting an Honor Award at the CASFM conference. It was indeed an honor for us to win this award, and we look forward to working with this group of people more in the future.
We thought this would be a good opportunity to share a video for the park we've been working on with Cameron at Colorado Photo. The final product is ready and we love it. You can catch the video here.

The park also appears in the book Colorado Urbanizing, "The premier guide to Urbanism in Colorado."

This was an exceptional project for us to work on, and we're so excited about the attention it's getting.