Articles
Revamping A Comfort Station
Within one of the most diverse ZIP codes in Seattle, Wash., Brighton Playfield sits between a public middle school and a residential neighborhood, serving as a hub for students, neighbors, and community groups. Allied8 was hired by Seattle Parks & Recreation to renovate the existing comfort station, a classic brick structure built in 1923, which included an office and storage.
Flaunt Those Fur Babies
JiffPom, the Pomeranian, has over 10-million followers on Instagram. As a point of comparison, the current vice president of the United States has about 16-million Instagram followers.
Returning What Once Was
One quarter—or 15-million acres—of Missouri was considered a prairie prior to European settlement. To narrow the focus even further, nearly 50,000 acres, or 17 percent, of St. Louis County was covered with tall-grass prairie during that same time period.
Making Itself Known
However nostalgic, the grainy black and white photos of children frolicking in the spray of a fire hydrant on a sweltering summer day remind us that access to recreational water parks is not assured for many underprivileged and overlooked communities.
Five best practices for successfully monitoring park visitation with count data
Monitoring visitor volumes is a valuable tool for planning, managing, and renovating a park system. Accurate knowledge of trail and facility usage can help make informed operational decisions, improve maintenance, and justify future investments.
Award-Winning Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park Opens Phase 1B
Renovation of the 126-acre park continues with the opening of additional amenities and announces six awards won
Biederman Redevelopment Ventures plan new park programming
The Park @ 320 will host events outside of 320 South Canal Street, home of the new BMO Tower
Cultural Connection
In a time of “cultural wars,” writing about Los Angeles’ relationship with its Chinatown is fraught with danger. Suffice it to say that Los Angeles Chinatown is a place that mirrors the experiences of an immigrant group targeted by systematic racial discrimination for over two centuries.
Fulfilling Visions
How should the value of a park plan be determined? Should a plan be judged by the degree to which it is implemented? What good is a plan if it offers a vision that is unfulfilled?
Serve It Up!
While beach volleyball was added to the Olympics in 1996, there is plenty of evidence to suggest the sport originated in Hawaii in the early 1900s. Like surfing, the activity was carried to the United States, becoming a fixture in California—where it was noticed by the rest of the world.
Take The Time
Imagine you’ve made a commitment to complete a job by a certain date. You have great equipment and skilled, trained technicians. But, when the employee gets to the job site, the equipment fails. This is a frustrating, stressful, and expensive event that has likely occurred for countless maintenance managers.
Revitalizing Park Infrastructure: Part 1
For those people who work in parks, there are few things sadder than to see a run-down, forgotten park—especially knowing what a great one can do for a community. Thankfully, as cities expand and mature communities begin to reinvest in older neighborhoods, there is increasing interest in reviving aging park infrastructure.
Branch Out
Cities are always striving for cleaner air, higher property values, greener parks, and healthier residents. To address these goals, many of the most progressive communities and public park managers turn to trees because of their endless benefits.
Solar-Charging Stations
Solar-powered charging stations are becoming more visible in public areas—especially where there is no access to power lines. The stations are frequently used to charge mobile devices such as laptops and phones.
Show, Don’t Tell
Parks systems play critical roles in generating significant economic, health, and environmental benefits that enhance the quality of life in communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parks staff members know this, but they often struggle with the best ways to prove it to partners, grantors, and local tax payers; communities often don’t think of parks as economic drivers.
One Year In: Counting A Million Visitors In Los Angeles Parks
In Los Angeles, parks have long been places of solace and escape for residents of the notoriously dense city. During the summer of 2020, the Los Angeles Department of
A New Era
In Minneapolis, the Mississippi River’s only natural waterfall tumbles through the heart of the city, serving as the focal point for Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional Park—one of the most popular attractions in Minnesota with 3.6-million annual visitors—amidst a bustling, revitalized riverfront district, where thousands of people live, work, and play every day.
A Fine-Tuned Plan
Whether you’re going to a local nature trail for daily hikes, camping on weekends, or simply observing wildlife at the local preserve, outdoor activities have increased significantly in the last couple of years due to the pandemic, and parks and recreation departments are seeing the value in making plans to sustain that healthy growth into the future.
On The Road To Remediation
Saginaw River Headwaters Rec Area is giving a long-abandoned piece of property a new lease on life.
Aligning Infrastructure And Environmental Priorities
By 2050, the population in California is expected to increase to 50-million people, while rainfall is projected to decrease by 10 to 15 percent due to climate change. With Californians using the equivalent volume of water of Shasta Lake—the state’s largest reservoir—every 40 days, a new model for urban-water use is being considered at every level of government.