A Playground on a Hill

Mansel Carter Oasis Park in Queen Creek, Arizona, is a newly-constructed 46-acre park facility that is home to a five-acre fishing lake, splash pad, sand-dig zone, wheel-friendly skatepark, fitness zones, baseball fields, volleyball & basketball courts, multi- use fields, and much more. With all of these different first-class amenities, however, a particular playground still stands above the rest - literally. Designed by Arizona firm J2 Engineering & Environmental Design, the playground is known as "the heart and soul" of MCOP.

 
Because of a very tight budget for play amenities and equipment, the Town of Queen Creek staff and landscape architects needed to get creative. Their goal was to develop a destination playground, but they could not depend solely on an expensive budget to provide the equipment to be the "star of the show." Therefore, the Team imagined an elevated playground utilizing excess earth that had been excavated from the lake to raise the playground area. This "push and pull" sculpting of the grading and landscape allowed the playground to stand above the rest of the park and lake, as an icon that can be seen from anywhere on the site (and beyond).

The design team and Town worked closely with local committee and resident groups to understand the needs of the community. They heard loud and clear that a main goal was inclusivity. The playground is designed to not only accommodate minimum ADA standards, but to fully embrace children of all abilities. All play equipment was chosen with this goal in mind. Harness swings invite children with underdeveloped upper body strength to swing; a cozy dome provides an escape for an overstimulated child; a spinning dome offers a range of physical challenges; and the first floor of the large tower play piece is accessible by wheelchair.

The Town of Queen Creek also requested a unique amenity-- a rock-climbing wall. The designers used the graded hillside and topography to their advantage, creating opportunities for a more advanced climb for the daring and a milder climb for the less adventurous. Adjacent to the rock-climbing wall is a "social media hillside" spot for visitors to take "selfies" and promote the park.

The playground is also distinct because of its adjacency to the lake, splash pad, sand-dig area, and open play turf zone. The stimulating splash pad sits to the northwest of the playground, while the quieter sand-dig zone sits to the northeast. Extensive turf surrounds the playground and somewhat erases the borders of it by allowing play to extend past the defined "playground" area, and even onto the grass hillside. The boundaries of the traditional playground are blurred and play value is increased because of the siting of the play area and the nearby amenities.

Through a public-private partnership, Banner Ironwood Medical Center donated $130,000 to cover the costs of rubberized surfacing over the entire playground area and other parts of the park, to help create a more inclusive site. The rubberized surfacing includes design icons and elements of nature that tie in with the theme of "Adventure Play."

Team List
Client: Town of Queen Creek, Ariz.
Contractor: Haydon Building Corp.

As seen in LASN magazine, August 2019.

Filed Under: PLAYGROUND, PLAYGROUND COLUMN, J2 ENGINEERING & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN, LASN

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