An Equitable Approach
Milwaukee Recreation leans on experts in citywide playfield-revitalization project
By Brian Foley and Dan Shinkle
Photos: Milwaukee Recreation
Milwaukee Recreation—a department of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS)—is modernizing its outdoor playfield system throughout the city. With the help of experts, such as planning and environmental consultants, award-winning design firms, engineers, qualified internal staff members, and community members, Milwaukee Recreation is transforming the city’s neighborhoods and creating recreational opportunities for all individuals.
The department manages 52 playfields, encompassing more than 300 acres. These sites range from large-scale community playfields to small “pocket” fields. Milwaukee Recreation has reopened five playfields since its first groundbreaking in 2018, with two more expected to reopen to the public in 2021.
Here are the key steps taken to plan, engage, design, and implement this project.
The Plan
Many of the playfields were constructed in the early- to mid-1900s, had fallen into disrepair, and were no longer meeting the needs of the surrounding communities. Recognizing this problem, Milwaukee Recreation senior director Lynn Greb sought out experts to assist in setting a vision for system-wide improvements. “We know how valuable our playfields are to the city as a whole,” Greb says. “Devoting the proper time and resources to the planning portion of this revitalization was absolutely essential for our department.”
Milwaukee Recreation retained consulting assistance in 2014 from SAA Design Group and Continuum Architects & Planners to review existing facilities and provide a roadmap for improvements over a 10-year timeframe. These consultants established over two dozen goals and objectives in the Outdoor Facilities Master Plan, spanning topics such as safety, staffing, funding, equity, environmental sustainability, and maintenance.
This master plan provided a starting point, as it rated the condition of each playfield on a scale of 1 (poor), 2 (fair), 3 (good), or 4 (excellent). Unsurprisingly, the plan rated 65 percent of the facilities as fair to poor, and identified more than $25 million in needed improvements.
Priorities
In 2016, Milwaukee Recreation hired Pam Linn as the Facilities Project Manager. Linn’s prior experience with parks and playgrounds, along with her passion for equitable revitalization, was integral to setting the department’s priorities.
With 52 playfields spanning a wide variety of needs, it was critical to create a system to guide the work over the coming years. “We knew which sites had need and where funding opportunities were, but we needed a data-driven approach for prioritizing investment,” Linn says.
Once again, Milwaukee Recreation turned to the experts, this time becoming familiar with the work done by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board—one of the earliest park systems in the nation to bring an equity lens to its development process.
Milwaukee Recreation adapted Minneapolis’ model to create an Equity Prioritization Index that fit Milwaukee’s needs. The plan uses weighted criteria across three key areas:
Physical conditions
Neighborhood characteristics (income level, poverty rate, race, crime rate)
Population characteristics (total population, youth population, adjacent parkland).
“We have a responsibility to be equitable in our approach. We can’t perpetuate the disinvestment that has occurred in these neighborhoods over the years,” Linn says.
The Project Scope
Defining the scope of a project is instrumental in the planning process. First, a determination must be made whether to use the majority of funds for a given fiscal year to complete large-scale renovations at one or two sites, or to make smaller upgrades across many locations.
Next, an institution must decide if it is able to take on large-scale construction projects. To handle all the steps involved—soliciting RFPs for design and engineering services, compiling bid packages, overseeing the bidding process, administering construction contracts—an organization needs to have a team of dedicated staff members with the appropriate expertise.
If a full renovation is too large, can staff members handle smaller construction, maintenance, and repair contracts to make incremental improvements to a facility?. Do staff members have the expertise to self-perform any of the work involved? All of these questions need to be addressed internally to fully understand the work required. By using the Outdoor Facilities Master Plan and Equity Prioritization Index as the guiding light, Milwaukee Recreation was able to answer those questions and build project timelines into the plan.
Design And Community Engagement
Milwaukee Recreation hosts multiple in-person, community-engagement sessions for each renovation project. These sessions feature presentations from school representatives as well as design professionals, allowing individuals to provide direct feedback and create their own vision for a playfield’s design. The department also conducts surveys so community members can contribute without attending in-person gatherings.
Using the input from the community, the department works with a design firm to develop the vision into a biddable and buildable set of construction documents. Linn and her team, which includes Facilities Project Supervisor Dan Shinkle, utilize a holistic approach for each site, creating an intentional design to guide patrons throughout the playfield.
“We went from being a department that would remove and replace an amenity in its place, to really looking closely at where that amenity should be,” Shinkle says. “But we also asked the community, ‘is this even the amenity you want?’ This process ensures that the community is heard, and that the playfield is responding to the current residents’ needs.”
Marketing
Promoting a project of this scale is a unique marketing opportunity. Each playfield is a massive undertaking; for example, a typical renovation project costs between $1 million and $3.5 million, so it is vital to spend the extra dollars communicating the project’s objectives and updates. Here are more suggestions:
Hang large banners showcasing the design in visible locations at the site.
Create social media ads targeted to the appropriate ZIP codes.
Send several rounds of postcards to the community to announce a grand reopening event.
Produce doorhangers for the immediate neighborhood prior to the start of construction.
It might feel like these marketing efforts are adding up financially, but it is still just a drop in the bucket compared to a playfield’s overall price tag. And long-term, that marketing push will pay significant dividends. More people will attend the community-engagement sessions, giving the feedback needed to design a playfield that best serves the public’s needs. So, less time will be spent answering questions from community members because they will be more informed. And when the surrounding neighborhood ultimately experiences the final product, the organization will be rightly associated with the excellent work, flooding the entire department with a positive wave of publicity.
Evaluation
Of course, the work never stops, even after a playfield is reopened. The evaluation stage is critical—learning from mistakes, improving the process for future projects, and gathering more feedback from the community.
When Milwaukee Recreation reopened Clovernook Playfield in the fall of 2020, the excitement from the renovation brought new users to the playfield. After hearing multiple requests from the public, the department is already returning to the playfield to install additional swing-set equipment to meet the high demand for this particular amenity.
As always, listening to the experts throughout the process, particularly community members, is vital. Feedback from the residents, when paired with the proper planning steps, will ensure the organization creates a play space that serves the needs of the neighborhood for years to come.
To learn more, visit mkerec.net/playfield.
Brian Foley is the Marketing Supervisor for Milwaukee Recreation in Milwaukee, Wis. Reach him at (414) 475-8478, or foleybd@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.