Welcome! Welcome & Introductions City Center Project Update - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Welcome!

Playground Committee Meeting Stow City Center Project Planning June 27, 2019

Agenda

• Welcome & Introductions
• City Center Project Update
• Project Overview, Timeline & Budget
• Your Role Tonight (and Moving Forward)
• Next Steps

Our Playground

Let’s Get

Started!

Current City Center Site

The Future

Concept Rendering

Play Trail/Playground

Concept Rendering

Vision & Components

City Center Phase 1 will create a centralized community gathering space for all residents.

• Amphitheater
• Play Trail/Playground
• Splash Pad

Planning for a Playground

HOW DO WE PLAN?

• What are our goals?
• Location – what are the considerations?
• Budgeting for the playground
• Planning for specific age groups
• Choosing play equipment
• Incorporating the 7 elements of play

Goals for a Playground

WHAT ARE OUR GOALS?

You want to be very clear about what you are looking for before asking for a proposal – for instance, specific equipment you want or don’t want. Often, the best advice is to start with the end in mind. Developing a list of goals will help everyone involved – from the play equipment companies to the playground installer and the playground consultant – understand what you want.

Goals for a Playground

Goals might include:

• Ease of maintenance
• Innovation
• Design
• Theme
• Strengthening partnerships within the community

As you develop goals, be sure to involve all stakeholders and seek out experts when needed. That might be a recreation expert, construction professional, or parents of children with disabilities.

Location for a Playground

You will want to assess the area for potential challenges. Things you should take into account include:

• Ensuring you have enough room to extend the safety surfacing

at least 6 feet around the play equipment for required use zones

• Ensuring you have good drainage or determining if updates

will need to be done. Installation experts recommend a slope of 1% to 4% (or one to four feet of fall for every 100 linear feet).

• Assessing the topography. Determine if there are manmade or

natural features that need to be incorporated into the playground or affect the playground.

Budgeting for a Playground

• Budget is more than just about money.
• You want to make sure you get the most for your budget

dollar and that probably means relying on a landscape architect, playground consultant or playground manufacturer to make recommendations.

• It also means delivering the project on time and within

budget.

Budgeting for a Playground

• Check references.
• Find out about reliability and on-time delivery.
• Ask questions about the durability and safety record of the products being

recommended.

• Find out about warranties.
• Understand how much it will cost to maintain over time.

Tip: Consider designing on a Pay for Play concept. This means play elements come first instead of relying on what is left over in the budget.

Plan for Specific Age Groups

• For a public park and playground, you need to know and plan for the community

that will be visiting and using it – one size does NOT fit all.

• Plan not only for current age ranges, but also future age ranges.
• Plan so that it meets the needs as the neighborhood children grow up. This can be

extremely important when planning for smaller, neighborhood playgrounds.

• You also will want to have an idea of the number of children the play equipment

needs to accommodate.

Plan for Specific Age Groups

• Areas for 2 to 5-year-olds:
• Offer activities that test motor skills, strength, agility and creative thinking, such

as climbing over, under and around things, smaller steps and crawl spaces that promote exploring.

• Encourage social skill development, areas where children can begin to interact

with others.

• Play equipment might include crawl tunnels, small slides, enclosed play spaces,

activity panels for fine motor skills and decks of modest height, low platforms, ramps with pieces attached for grasping, tricycle paths and sand areas.

Plan for Specific Age Groups

Areas for 5 to 12-year-olds:

• This age group is ready for bigger challenges both physically

and intellectually.

• Children tend to want play equipment with higher platforms

and slides, swings, climbers, larger slides, rope climbers, monkey bars and upper body equipment.

Choosing Play Equipment

You need play equipment that is age appropriate, but there are a few other things to consider when deciding what to provide:

• Do you want single or multiple user equipment?
• How many children need to be accommodated?
• How tall or what height are you comfortable with?
• Do you want traditional post and deck play equipment, rope

play equipment, music, boulders?

Choosing Play Equipment

• Do you want swings and spinning opportunities?
• What accessibility/inclusivity requirements do you have?
• What types of surfacing will be needed?
• Have you accounted for use zones?
• Will the equipment provide the seven elements of play?

Seven Elements of Play

• Swinging
• Spinning
• Balancing
• Sliding
• Climbing
• Brachiating
• Sensory Play

Swinging

• Very basic playground activity
• Helps with balance
• Teaches a child to know where his or her body is in space
• Practices fine motor skills (grasping the chain)
• Practices gross motor skills (pumping the legs).

Traditional, toddler and infant swings help develop locomotion, balancing, body coordination, as children develop the pumping motions and jump out of the swings or even pushing others in the swings. Saucer swings accommodate multiple kids at one time, are accessible and enables children with special needs to enjoy the swinging movement. Hammock swings have a smooth swaying motion that is soothing. This motion of swinging restores balance to the vestibular system, provides proprioceptive input and helps children with autism feel more in balance.

Swinging

Concept Renderings

Swinging

Spinning

• Helps important body functions develop and function properly.
• Helps build gross and fine motor skills along with core strength, enhancing the

vestibular system and body awareness. The Comet Spinner from Burke challenges children ages 5 to 12 to use their strength, balance and coordination. It can be used by one child or a group, sitting or standing either inside or outside. The children use their strength to move it. Mounted at an angle, it provides interaction with the force of gravity. Whereas the Eddie from Berliner is a very simple spinner. It has a body and stem made of stainless steel that is either straight or curved and accommodates one or two kids at a time. This is a great spinner for both small and bigger kids.

Spinning

Balancing

• Helps build muscle strength, endurance and postural control.
• Encourages pretend play and social interaction, develops

proprioceptive systems and cognitive functions.

• Children love to balance and even adults may appreciate a quick

balancing exercise, too!

Balancing

Balancing

Sliding

• Encourages cooperative play and social interaction
• Encourages cooperation and following directions
• Promotes leg/hip flexibility
• Develops critical thinking skills
• Promotes spacial awareness

Sliding Component

Concept Component

Sliding Component

Climbing

• Helps build gross and fine motor skills, enhancing the vestibular system,

perceptual motor skills such as body awareness, spatial awareness and directional awareness and sharpening visual perception skills.

• Helps make children aware of direction – up, down, left, right. It encourages

problem-solving and predicting what’s going to happen.

• For older kids, a rope structure can provide unlimited play opportunities –

climbing up, down and side-to-side, increasing their confidence as they climb higher and higher!

• Play Pod Walks and Pad Climbers help kids master balance and coordination

skills as they climb.

• And, don’t forget the challenges climbing rocks and boulders offer!

Climbing Component

Concept Component

Climbing Component

Climbing Component

Brachiating

• Very basic playground activity
• Helps with balance
• Teaches a child to know where his or her body is in space
• Practices fine motor skills (grasping the chain)
• Practices gross motor skills (pumping the legs).

Traditional, toddler and infant swings help develop locomotion, balancing, body coordination, as children develop the pumping motions and jump out of the swings or even pushing others in the swings. Saucer swings accommodate multiple kids at one time, are accessible and enables children with special needs to enjoy the swinging movement. Hammock swings have a smooth swaying motion that is soothing. This motion of swinging restores balance to the vestibular system, provides proprioceptive input and helps children with autism feel more in balance.

Brachiating

Sensory Play

• Encourages children to use one or more of the senses, stimulating sight, sound, smell, touch,

taste, balance and movement.

• Helps build neural connections that support thought, learning and creativity and supports

language development, cognitive growth, fine/gross motor skills, problem solving and social development.

• Musical instruments are an easy way to incorporate sensory play. Musical instruments pique

a child’s curiosity – what sounds will it make? How hard or soft can I hit it? Will I be any good?

• The great thing about musical instruments is that they are good for any age (including

adults!), ability and you don’t even have to speak the same language as someone you are playing with.

• Musical instruments help develop a child’s auditory system and the vibrations add to the

sensory experience.

Sensory Play

Sensory Play

Sensory Play

Playground Manaufacturers

• MidStates

Project Timeline (working)

Planning Phase (in progress)

• Design & budget development: April - September 2019
• Major gift fundraising:

January 2019 - March 2020

Construction/Execution

• Site prep (with groundbreaking ceremony): Fall 2019
• Amphitheater construction:

TBD (Feb - April 2020)

• Playground construction:

TBD (spring-summer 2020)

Public Phase

• Public phase fundraising:

Kick off (@70-75% of goal

• Grand opening - Amphitheater: May/June 2020
• Opening event - Playground:

TBD (summer/early fall 2020)

Project Budget (working)

Design/Architecture/Site Prep (incl. parking lot & sidewalks) $185,000 Amphitheater $330,000 Play Trail/Playground $310,000 Landscaping $35,000 Fixtures, Misc. Equipment $40,000 SUBTOTAL $900,000 Fundraising & Marketing $50,000 Contingency at 8% of $950,000 $76,000

TOTAL PROJECTED COST $1,026,000

Public Engagement

• Planning survey – Complete!
• Information sharing and visioning with City of Stow

committee, commission members – Complete!

• Identify individuals wishing to get more involved –

Complete!

• City Center Phase 1 steering committee and

playground committee work – In Progress!

Your Role

• Playground

planning

• Research
• Field Trips
• Artistic concepts
• Themes
• Components

Q/A - Roundtable

Your time is appreciated!