Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible,

Recreational Space for North Champaign

Aditi Kambuj, HORT499, Summer 2011

Images Sourced from the Natural Learning Initiative

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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

KNOWLEDGE AGENCY ACTION

Index
3 Introduction + Design Progran

5 Part I: Kindergarten + Pre-kindergarten

8 Part II: Fragrance garden + Transition garden

9 Part III: Active Play + Nature space

10 Part IV: Community Garden + Main play area

11 Part V: Family Picnic Area

12 Part VI: Games Area

13 Ladder of Environmental Responsibility

14 Plants and Materials

15 Developmental Outcomes

16 References + Maintenance
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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Introduction
This project explores the potential of
the parks, located around the Stratton
Elementary School, Hazel Park and the
Randolph Street Community Garden in
North Champaign.

The project recognizes that the green

spaces surrounding the numerous
educational institutions in this area are
severely lacking in quality of natural
environment. Based on research on the
positive affect of exposure to nature
on children’s attention spans as well as
social and emotional development, it is
critical that the plain green expanses in
this park are studied and redesigned.

Given more time, I would have liked to

involve a few of the stakeholders in the
design of the project. The park runs
North - South. It is divided into several
smaller sections, either by existing roads
or parking spaces and buildings. Ideally,
traffic on the stretch cutting through the
green spaces must be slowed down by
narrowing the street width. The pedes-
trian and in particular the young pedes-
trian should be given priority in the new
design.

The audience for the project are the

residents of the neighborhood, the Park
District, the City of Champaign and the
Champaign Unit 4 School District.

Image 1: Location Map of proposed recreation area in North Champaign

School Motherlands Culture Club Randolph Street Community Garden
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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Existing Site and Programming

Part VI: Games Area

Part V: Family Area

Part IV: Main Play Area

Part III: Elementary School

Active Play Space

Part II: Transition Space

Part I: Kindergarten and

pre-kindergarten

0m 50 m 100 m
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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part I : Kindergarten / Pre-kindergarten (layout)

Mound of green
Support hide and seek and
chasing games, rolling and Seasonal beautification area Pathways
make gathering space - stimulates coopera-
tion and interaction

Sand area with mini water Entrance Arch

pump nearby, accessed through Creates a welcoming
transition spaces atmosphere

Quiet Flower nook

with bird feeder for rest
and color
Play area with stepping stones
and jumping rocks Hedge Planting for
improves balance and sense shade
of discovery. Making avail- Fantasy Play area
able materials and natural encourages role play
elements that children can get and social interaction
creative with combining them
to build shapes, shelters and Open Hut Structure
other play elements from. 4m x 4m

Shrubbery with prairie flowers

and native grasses Active Play area
(integrated with exist-
Tree to play hide and ing play structures)

0m 25 m 50 m

Key 5
Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part I : Kindergarten / Pre-kindergarten (planting)

Flowering and colorful

planting along edges
- Grape hyacinth
- Eastern redbud
- Japanese Quince
- Rhododendron
Existing tree
- Echnicea
(species TBC)
- Cornelian Cherry
- Vernal Witch Hazel
Gold flame honneysuck- Physical barriers
le on transition pergolas - Five-leafed Aralia
- Rugosa Rose
Play Props Play Props
Feather reed grass - Feather reed grass
Prairie Cord - Prairie Cord
Weeping Willow
Fragrance created spaces to hide
Fringe Tree (male) and play in
Viburnum Judd alond
edge Flowering and colorful
planting along edges
(as above)

0m 25 m 50 m

Key 6
Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part I : Kindergarten / Pre-kindergarten (materials)

Pea gravel

Grass

pavers on concrete

wood chips

0m 25 m 50 m

Key 7
Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part II: Fragrance garden / Transition garden

Fragrance garden
with bridge and bench-
es restoration space

- Sweet woodruff
- Fragrant Plantain Lily
- Pink cottage
- Fringe Tree
- Chinese Witch Hazel

Wood Deck

Loose Gravel

Pavers on concrete

0m 25 m 50 m

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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part III: Active Play + Nature space

Native Prairie Cord

Area with mild slope
for running and
chasing games

Tall tree area (for

Play area for younger
climbing and swing-
children ( 6-9 yrs)
ing) with benches,bird
feeders and loose ob- existing parking area
jects for fantasy play Existing basketball
courts
Existing active play
Grass
area incorporated
with pathway
Wood chips

Play Props Pea Gravel

Feather reed grass
Prairie Cord
existing Pavers on concrete
trees
Yellowwood grove/
weeping willows
grove lambs ear/ grasses

Play Props
Feather reed grass
Prairie Cord 0m 25 m 50 m

Key 9
Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part IV: Community Garden + Main play area

Grass Brick Pavers on concrete

Loose play area

Wood chips Granite pavers on concrete (fantasy play)
Mound

Entrance arches Recycling Center

Bridge

Randolph Street Amphitheater stage

Community Garden

Sloped seating
Outdoor classroom

Sun dial and

bird feeders
Climate change and
Weather Station
and sound garden

Existing trees
Prairie grasses

0m 25 m 50 m
Existing trees with
outdoor study (picnic)
tables N
Wildlife enhances
Butterfly bush, flowering
dogwood, abelia Key 10
Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part V: Family Picnic Area

Grass

Wood chips

Japanese Maple
Granite pavers on concrete

White Ash

0m 25 m 50 m

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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Part VI: Games Area

low mound

Existing playing field

Proposed skate
boarding area

bike path
mound

Existing playing field

Existing playing field

0m 25 m 50 m
Grass

Wood chips N
Pavers on concrete

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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Implementing Sobbel’s Ladder of Environmental Responsibility

4, 5: Recycling and Composting 1: Flower Garden Maintenance

program

6: Climate Change Station

3: Main-
taining the
schoolyard

Sobel, D. (2008). Childhood and Nature: Design Principles

for Educators. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

2: Schoolyard vegetable gardens K: Seasonal beautification area

N
0m 50 m 100 m
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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Plants and Materials

Gold flame honneysuckle Lonicera X heckrottii

Feather reed grass Arrhenatherum elatius Grass
Prairie Cord Spartina pectinata
Sweet woodruff Galium odoratum Wood chips
Fragrant Plantain Lily Hosta
Pink cottage
Fringe Tree Chionanthus virginica Pavers on concrete
Chinese Witch Hazel Hamamelis mollis
Butterfly bush Buddleia davidii
Flowering dogwood Cornus florida Brick Pavers on concrete
Abelia Abelia
Yellowwood Cladrastis kentuckea
Weeping willow Salix babylonica Pea gravel
Grape hyacinth Muscari latifolium
Eastern redbud Cercis canadensis
Japanese Quince Chaenomeles speciosa Wood Deck
Rhododendron
Echnicea Echinacea purpurea
Cornelian Cherry Cornus mas Loose Gravel
Vernal Witch Hazel Hamamelis vernalis
Japanese Barberry Berberis thunbergii
Rugosa Rose Rosa rugosa
Japanese Maple Acer palmatum
White Ash Fraxinus Americana
Five-leafed Aralia Acanthopanax sieboldianus

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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign
1. Pathways
Pathways are useful to stimulate cooperative
behavior, interaction and decision making.
They support both ‘interpretive and mobile
games’ (Moore et al, 1987).
2. Enclosures, hedges and low walls
Create intimate spaces and protect from run-
ning through behavior. They can define gather-
ing spaces. Small, intimate gathering spaces
are conducing to social behavior.
3. Manufactured play equipment
Universally accessible and integrated with
pathways and green spaces to ensure engage-
ment and interest.
4. Multipurpose game settings
Existing facilities on site were integrated into
design to maintain economy. Furthermore,
traditional sports encourage team cooperation
and athletic ability.
5. Changes in landform and topography
Helps to develop fine and gross motor skills,
children help one another and this enhances
cooperative behavior and interaction. Children
enjoy running up and down slopes areas and
particularly enjoy hide and seek and chasing
games in these areas. Running up and down
hills is also a great way to encourage kids to get
active and have fun while doing so.
6. Wildlife enhancers
To encourage exposure and interaction with
other life forms so that the natural fascination
children feel is satisfied and encouraged.
7. Sun Dial and bird feeder area
To encourage children to make connections
between nature and human life.
8. Family area
To encourage outdoor activity for the whole
family and foster an attitude to a healthier
lifestyle throughout the family.
9. Playing mounds near games area
As a vantage point to see the games in prog-
ress and also as a spot from which younger
children may observe older children playing.
10. Flower garden and fragrance garden
To encourage and promote curiosity through
senses other than sight and touch and to be-
come in tune with changing seasons.
11. Sand areas and water spouts
To promote the ‘loose parts approach’ to play
area design to encourage creativity and imagi-
native play. To actively encourage role play
and fantasy play as a way to make sense of the
complex environment in which children live.
Developmental Outcomes
12. The potential to create dens and forts
To provide opportunities where children can
create restful, personal getaways. Sobel (1993)
argues that the creation of these personal
spaces are important for children as a way to
negotiate and cope with a large and un-con-
trollable world. Creating personalized natural
spaces “assists in the development of a sense
of personal order” and is “one of the vehicles
by which the self is shaped” (Sobel, 1993).
13. Introducing the ladder of environmental
responsibility to foster empathy for nature
and promote action and understanding of cli-
mate change and envrionmental conservation
Research indicates that developing a sense of
agency is the important link between knowl-
edge and action, particularly with respect to
developing a behavior of environmental stew-
ardship. Each garden provides an opportunity
to introduce a step from Sobel’s ladder of
Environmental Responsibility (p. 150) into the
teaching curriculum of the surrounding schools
(Sobel, 2008).
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Designing an Outdoor, Universally Accessible, Recreational Space for North Champaign

Sources
Chawla, L. (2007). Childhood Experiences Associated with Care for the Natural World: A theoretical Framework for Empirical Results. Children,
Youth and Environments, 144-170.

Greenman, J. (1998). Caring Spaces, Learning Places: Children’s environments that work. Redmond: Exchange Press.

Hendricks, B. (2001). Designing for Play. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.

Kaplan, R., Kaplan, S., & Ryan, R. (1998). Designing with People in Mind. Washington DC: Island Press.

Moore, R. (1993). Plants for Play. Berkeley: MIG Communications.

Moore, R., Goltsman, S., & Iacofano, D. (1992). Play for All. Berkeley: MIG Communications.

Nicholson, S. (1972). The Theory of Loose Parts. Studies in Design Education Craft & Technology, 5-14.

North Carolina State University, School of Design. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2011, from Natural Learning Initiative: http://www.naturalearning.org/

Sobel, D. (1993). Children’s Special Places: Exploring the role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood. New York.

Sobel, D. (2008). Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Management and Maintenance

The areas that are likely to need regular upkeep and maintenance include:
Pathways and tracks
Signage
Climbing areas
Infant and pre-kindergarten areas (for droppings, harmful substances)
Fantasy play area : grasses will need trimming
Sand Play area : stray sand dusted off
Play mound : check for erosion
Stage area : for leaf debris
Planting : regular pruning and upkeep
Play equipment : monthly checks

Parts of the play area would be protected from the public, potentially keeping the park closed during the night time and having security do a check
every morning to ensure safety and prevent harmful activity and substances from being used in the area. Neighbors should be encourages to keep
an eye and perhaps a neighborhood watch may be initiated. Street lights and lights in the garden area should be bright and up to standard.
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