Five years prior to the opening of the award-winning, universally accessible playground at Arroyo Verde Park in the City of Ventura, the original playground was destroyed by the devastating Thomas Fire. The task of rebuilding the play space was filled with emotion, and a desire from the community to create something special. An eagerness to have something beautiful emerge from such a heartbreaking disaster.
I received a call from Pacific Coast Land Design, who told me that the City of Ventura would like create a Universally Accessible Play Space on the site of the old playground. Knowing that our team at Landscape Structures is the leader in Inclusive Playground Design, they asked if we'd join the team and design the playground portion of the project.
It's not everyday that you get to be a part of such a meaningful project, and we were grateful for the opportunity to help bring this project to life for such a deserving community.
The play area at Arroyo Verde Park is tucked into the hillside of the park, and surrounded by beautiful trees and picnic areas. This natural environment informed our design directing from an aesthetic and functional perspective.
Aesthetically, a nature-inspired look fit perfectly into the environment, and allowed us to create a treehouse like vibe that also acted an an ode to the old "fort-like" play structure that has been destroyed. We were also able to weave in some small mountain town vibes as well by including a unique toddler play structure with references to a "general store" and "farmers market".
Functionally, the environment provided us with varying topography that we were able to leverage to create a more inclusive and dynamic play space. The fact that main play area was set down into a bowl from the main entrance allowed us to design a main play structure that could be accessed from both the "ground" and "top" levels! An inclusive ramp/bridge provided easy access for children of all abilities to the very top of the play structure.
Additionally, we were able to activate all of the slopes that the topography provided us with, by building in several different slides, climbers and even a custom sensory wall that was built into one of the retaining wall.
Along with inclusive access to all of the play elements, we also included many fully inclusive and sensory rich play elements listed below:
We-Go-Round: Wheelchair Accessible Spinner
SwayFun: Wheelchair Accessible Glider
We-Saw: Inclusive Seesaw
Friendship Swing: Multi-person Inclusive Swing
Slides: Rollerslide and Stainless Steel slides that reduce static electricity
Custom Sensory Play Center
In the end that playground was a tremendous success! The City and community loved the design, and it truly accomplished the goal of creating something beautiful and special out of something so terrible. Along with community approval, the playground received a tremendous amount of praise from peers at other municipalities and landscape design firms, and also won the Ventura County APWA Project of the Year award for 2022!
THANK YOU TO THE TEAM!
There are many people who helped bring this project together. Huge thank you to the City of Ventura and Pacific Coast Land Design for trusting us to help bring this design to life for the community! Thank you to Sheri Seminary, and the design team at Landscape Structures for bringing concepts a reality. Lastly, a big thank you goes out to Jack Striegel and the Tot Lot Pros team for crushing the installation of this epic structure!
For more information on this project or any others, please feel free to reach out to me here.
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