Those in the parks and recreation business continue to tell us that more people are visiting parks, a trend that started during the initial COVID period. And while this is great news, it does underscore the importance of making our parks equitable and inviting to all ages, demographics and interests, as the planners and designers of these spaces are well aware.
Development of new parks is uncommon these days, according to Eric Hornig, senior principal with Hitchcock Design, though it still occurs “on the fringes of residential development and when unique acquisitions provide opportunities in landlocked areas.”
Doug Fair, principal at Hitchcock, agreed that renovation of existing sites is most common, but added “I have been involved with a couple redevelopment projects converting open/farmland to new recreation use spaces. Additionally, some upcoming projects focus on redevelopment in direct response to providing new open space offerings to the agency’s underserved areas, as addressed in recently completed comprehensive master plans for that agency.”
While some renovations of existing park spaces are simply addressing worn-out facilities, amenities, or equipment, oftentimes the catalyst for these revitalizations is to keep pace with change. “It’s critical for us to accommodate current and anticipated trends in the recreation market as well as demographics for the community,” said Fair. “Many times, this comes from initial programming discussions with the agency and/or insight on both from the most recent community survey or master plan that gives us a good overall feel for what residents want.”
The nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL) has created thousands of parks and protected millions of acres of public land. Caroline O’Boyle is an associate vice president, Illinois state director, and she said that evolving demographics and recreation trends are absolutely considerations when planning renovations. She mentioned their initiative of transforming schoolyards from essentially asphalt parking lots into student-designed spaces.
“In New York City… one of the things they found is that junior high girls want there to be outside stages so they can practice their (TikTok) dances, which would not have been something that people thought of when those spaces were built,” said O’Boyle. “A lot of times it was ‘put up a basketball hoop and you’re done,’ and that’s not considering all the various populations that use the space.”
“Current and projected future demographics of a neighborhood, community, and region can inform types of program offerings a community desires, and these programs in turn inform the types of built spaces within parks and facilities serving that population,” said Scott Crawford, principal at RDG Planning & Design. “Like community demographics, the geographic location of a park site can also inform the types of programs, spaces, and facilities needed to serve park users. The size and environmental context in which a park site is located can also inform recreation uses for the park.”
Leon Younger is president of PROS Consulting Inc., which provides services to parks and rec systems. He estimated that about 25% of their clients are “building new” while 75% are updating existing spaces. “People want their facilities and programs to have the widest age segment appeal, and they want to activate the spaces they’ve created through creative programming for people of all ages.”
Bridget Deatrick, senior associate at Hitchcock, said they’re seeing a call for more flexibility in spaces, “two of the biggest trends being a call for spaces to be inclusive in physical, mental, and emotional needs, and a call for improved multigenerational opportunities.” She mentioned playgrounds as an example, which are now more likely to include equipment for all ages and abilities. “Design philosophy has advanced so far past just adding ramps for physical access, and it’s now standard practice to include areas of refuge and areas for imaginative, collaborative, and social play.”
And she mentioned the development of multiple activities within a single area as a trend, “where families can all engage together. We’re also seeing a growing need for spaces to be multifunctional since so many communities are landlocked with limited opportunity for new development, for example, areas that can serve multiple functions such as picnic shelters in warm months and ice skating in colder months.” Another example is using artificial turf fields to accommodate multiple sports and to “extend playing times longer in the day and into wetter seasons due to the elimination of resting the grass.”
Designing flexible spaces is indeed a goal, and Crawford pointed out that public parks serve diverse needs for communities. “As a result, our park designs often integrate multipurpose spaces and facilities that can be easily converted to serve many different user groups for different programs and events.”
Of course, thorough assessments must be conducted early on to understand the lay of the land, and Crawford explained that site inventory, analysis, and suitability evaluation are in the earliest phases of master planning a new park or designing renovations. “Establishing an understanding of the feasibility of a site to fulfill specific built program needs early in the planning process is critical to manage future development costs and park user expectations.”
Hornig said they “evaluate each park for a host of physical characteristics,” potentially including utilities, accessibility, drainage, natural resources, special management areas including wetlands and floodplains, safety, lighting, signage, landform/slopes, soils, size/shape, water table, wind, existing structures, historical/cultural context, habitat, pedestrian and vehicular transportation, and proximity to supporting amenities like dining, shopping and lodging—particularly for athletic venues.
Added Fair, “Through a mix of site tours or walks with the owner, data collection and review of available site information—surveys, reports, maps, etc.—we typically start with thorough inventory and analysis to determine what are some opportunities and/or constraints to be considered as we begin early stages of design.”
Younger said they focus on where the asset is in its lifecycle as it applies to condition and use, and focus on whether improvements will continue to attract users. “We track who’s using the facilities, where they come from, how far they travel, and we track the cost per experience so it provides the data to agencies to know if they spend this money updating the facility that people will continue to use it.”
Sometimes when an update is called for, it’s wise to examine surrounding amenities as well. For instance, Laura Rudow, superintendent of parks and planning in St. Charles, Ill., advised that if a playground is due for replacement (at 18 to 20 years), “it makes sense to look at the whole park since everything is about the same age. Nowadays, a new playground with surfacing is around $400,000, so if you’re going to make that investment, then let’s look beyond just the playground equipment at things like accessibility throughout, site furnishings, the courts and asphalt, the lighting—and make it a large capital project.”
Rudow said that when planning new park spaces or renovations, the park district works with landscape architecture and civil and environmental engineering firms. “If we’re going to do something big that was tied to revenue, then absolutely I would plan on utilizing professional services to do a pro forma or cost analysis to ensure good decision-making and an accurate view of the market.”
In Chicago, the 606 is a new greenspace and 2.7-mile linear park and trail system that was formerly an abandoned rail line. TPL partnered with the Chicago Park District, City of Chicago and various community groups to plan, design, and construct the 606.
O’Boyle explained how oftentimes in a park development project, the design team might suggest, for example, building a platform where a sculpture might be placed and “that’s their arts thinking. But for the 606, we actually had an artist embedded in the design team, and the entire park design was influenced by her artistic notion of what could happen out there.”
O’Boyle said the artist observed that with the linear park perpendicular to Lake Michigan, there would be temperature fluctuation from east to west, so she planted an array of blooming shrubs that would demonstrate the difference between one end of the park and the other; one end bloomed earlier than plants at the other end, with waves of blooms heading across the trail. “A lot of the features that were built are just incorporated into the park, they’re not add-ons. So, whenever I’m working on projects that are in that phase, I really try to encourage artists to be integrally involved in the design and not just an afterthought.”
TPL emphasizes a participatory design process in all their work, according to O’Boyle. “With the 606 project we were brought in to help with community outreach because entities like the Chicago Park District and our other organizations around the country tend to have a very old-school, top-down approach to community engagement.”
This might include having designers present a plan and getting a thumbs up or thumbs down from community members, “instead of involving people on the ground floor in the charrette process to workshop ideas and imagine a dream about what everything could be instead of responding to somebody else’s design.”
Younger said they use “several public engagement tools, such as social pinpoint, focus groups, online and statistically valid surveys. We interview core partners and groups, and we go where they are and set up booths to capture information on iPads on how people use parks and facilities, and what they’re looking for in the future.”
“I do community engagement for every project over $250,000,” said Rudow. “If we’re spending their money and the item or amenity is going to be in their neighborhood for the next 20 years, then let’s build them what they need and have it be a direct reflection of the area it will serve.” She mentioned several projects undertaken in the past year where they conducted both in-person and online engagement. “It really helps to facilitate a smooth project and create buy-in.”
In recent years, there’s been more focus on eco-friendliness with regard to new designs and construction, and that certainly includes parks and open spaces.
Hornig said as landscape architects, their baseline approach works toward sustainability and environmental stewardship. “We’ve seen increased focus toward native planting (including reduction of turf), best management practices related to drainage and stormwater, and multiple aspects of stewardship, using education and play to create the future champions of the environment.”
“Parks are the front door for users into nature,” said Crawford. “As such, environmental stewardship and resiliency are foundational elements to the kind of park design that leads to meaningful experiences. Parks are uniquely positioned in our society to build awareness and appreciation of ecological systems that are critical to the health and well-being of all living organisms.”
TPL believes that green spaces can make communities more resilient against flooding, drought, fires, heat, and other effects of climate change. In Chicago, O’Boyle described restoring the historic Sears Sunken Garden, built on the former Sears headquarters campus in the early 1900s, now a historic landmark. “We’re not just going to re-do the plantings, we’re going to create underwater stormwater storage that’s going to help with flood runoff, and it will increase the tree canopy which reduces the heat island effect.” And in the North Lawndale neighborhood where the park sits, which has suffered from disinvestment for decades, 7,700 residents will have a nearby green space to visit.
O’Boyle also mentioned TPL’s Natural Solutions Tool, which helps guide green infrastructure investment in Chicago and surrounding counties. Anyone—including city leaders—“can identify places in your region that an investment in a park could have the biggest co-benefits for climate resiliency. People are starting to realize that a park is more than a place for community recreation, though that’s its primary function. But if you’re going to build a park or retrofit one, you might as well make it double duty by building in features that are going to help with climate resiliency.”
Dollars are a never-ending concern for municipalities and parks departments, and when planning new projects or renovations, it’s critical to consider how designs will impact budgets down the road as far as ongoing maintenance, including manpower, equipment, and other resources. Hornig said these concerns are always layered into conversations, and they recommend having someone with this daily role be part of the client’s team. He said decisions about materials should consider longevity and ease of maintenance as well as aesthetics. “We consider replenishment, repainting, sealing, recoating, weeding, watering, mowing, burning, and replacement when making decisions.”
Hitchcock Design Group
“Creating a realistic operations model for the built improvements that forecasts maintenance, capital depreciation, and replacement costs, and any estimated revenue generation, is critical to long-term success and resiliency of parks,” said Crawford. “Park master planning and design is often most successful when operational planning is completed in parallel with the physical planning effort.”
Younger said they do a full cost assessment of what the facility will cost to operate, including “staffing costs, equipment cost, utilities, supplies, marketing and management, and lifecycle replacement cost.”
And what about recent trends—things that planners and designers are paying attention to? “Splash pads have exploded in popularity and have a huge range in the type of operational systems and scale available,” said Deatrick. She noted that this trend is emerging in communities with non-sustainable aquatics facilities, as splash pads can be a “great supplement or alternative to aging facilities. Their flexibility in size and design also allows some agencies to provide multiple locations, improving the geographic equity of access across their communities.”
“We talk about pickleball everyday,” said Hornig, who added that they’re also seeing interest in more compact sports like table tennis, bocce, bean bag toss, and Teqball that “might complement an amenity core.”
Fair noted that the pandemic placed a higher emphasis on outdoor activity and wellness in general. “Walking and biking trails, fitness stations, obstacle courses, and active play areas all seem to be attractive components.” Additionally, these tend to serve a wide range of ages, “providing more opportunities for engagement between age groups, which can be beneficial in strengthening communities.”
In 2012, TPL started releasing the ParkScore Index, which ranks the 100 most populous cities by comparing five park categories: equity, access, investment, amenities, and acreage. O’Boyle said that her city of Chicago was excited to snag the No. 10 spot in 2024, and she explained how cities are now using this as a benchmark to make improvements in their parks and open spaces. “ParkScore gives parks departments leverage to advocate for what they need and explain how it’s making a tangible improvement in the lives of people in their cities. A lot of parks departments use this as a tool to open conversations with their mayor or city manager or other departments; it helps them make the argument that parks are essential too.”
There’s much to consider when planning new spaces or renovations, but it still comes down to what those who will use the space really desire to make it a success. “We’re typically working in a community that’s not the one you live in,” said Hornig, “so it’d be presumptuous to assume you understand their culture without hearing their voice. We bring a strong understanding of opportunities, constraints, and trends of recreation, but the hopes and dreams of the community must be heard to be able to pull a plan together that will be right-sized for the community.” RM