Elm Park Tot Lot Redesign

Summary

Urban Ecology has partnered with Pogo Parks to redesign a neighborhood playlot in the Iron Triangle neighborhood of Richmond. Originally designed for older children, Elm Playlot is currently filled with age-inappropriate play equipment and is seldom used. Our aim is to transform it into a high-quality play space for neighborhood children age 0-5. Urban Ecology is currently engaging the community in a series of design workshops to make sure the park is designed with their needs included.

The first brainstorming session.

Elm Park as it is today.

Workshop One

We have organized and held two visioning workshops so far with a great turnout from local community members. During the first meeting, Pogo Parks gave a presentation on the developmental process that young children go through. Proper growth of a young persons brain is stimulated by play, hence the need for high quality play parks. Five discussions were held on the different qualities that a playlot will have.

1. The park will be a sanctuary and a safe place.
2. A park host will be employed to lead play activities and be a steward of the park.
3. Play activities will encourage children to engage in physical, social, linguistic, imaginative, and cognitive play.
4. The park will be a comfortable place for families to spend several hours each day.
5. The park will become a community hub providing services to the neighborhood.

Workshop Two

For the second gathering of the community, we held a design workshop. A scale model of the park was made, along with all of the amenities that the participants in the first meetings said they wanted. Urban Ecology facilitated the design groups by focusing them on safety, activities, and amenities. Three different groups came up with three very different designs.

Design One focused on a center plaza area that would provide space for different activities throughout the day.
Design Two had distinct play areas for little kids and the older children.
Design Three made sure that the adults could sit and rest in between all the play areas to keep watch on their children.

Next Steps

Urban Ecology will design three different solutions to the problem of including everything the community wants in such a small space, then host another workshop in Richmond to gather feedback.