Ballantrae Park

By John Petrushka, ASLA

Ballantrae Park employs rubble stacked field walls, native plantings, sculptural dancing hares, and whimsical water features to convey a sense of the Irish landscape that is a part of the Communities at Ballantrae, a 640-acre golf course community development located in Dublin, Ohio, northwest of the capital city of Columbus. Home of the Muirfield Golf Course, which hosts The Memorial Golf Tournament as part of the PGA tour every June, Dublin’s population of approximately 35,000 enjoys the benefits of planned communities, traffic-ways and bike trails connecting all parts of this growing community of which Ballantrae has become an important component.

Ballantrae Park’s purpose was twofold. One, the park provides an entrance feature for residents and visitors entering Ballantrae from the east, and second, it provides an additional park facility for Dublin’s Parks and Recreation Department. Ballantrae Park was constructed prior to the city’s pool complex built immediately to the south. As a programming element, the city desired a fountain in this area to complement the more active swimming pool facility. Today, the park, and especially the fountain area, is as popular as the pool complex.

Ballantrae Park is a part of the Communities at Ballantrae, a 640- acre golf course community development located in Dublin, Ohio, northwest of the capital city of Columbus. Twenty-three acre Ballantrae Park has a two-level lake, large fountain features, fields and woodlands, and a dry-laid rubble stone wall that spans more than 1,400 feet across the length of the park.

The 23-acre Ballantrae Park welcomes residents and visitors with a subtle, yet elegant design: a two-level lake, large fountain features, pastoral fields and woodlands, and a low, dry-laid rubble stone wall that stretches more than 1,400 feet across the entire length of the park. While the park appears simple and seamless on the surface, the design and construction process was rather complicated.

History and Design

The design for Ballantrae Park was the result of an informal design competition sponsored by the developer, The Edwards Companies, and the city of Dublin. Edwards asked MSI and two other local landscape architectural firms to develop and submit design plans and concepts based on a loose program of elements that included a central design feature, parking, a restroom facility, necessary storm drainage and utility requirements. The winner would then be responsible for completing documentation for city approvals, bidding, and constructing the park.

In the original design of the park, the grotto wall was considerably lower. To make it more visible, the wall was raised to more than 15 feet above the plaza and a waterfall was added for visual effect.

In the original competition design, the main features within Ballantrae Park consisted of two water-related components: a lake system and a multi-functional fountain. A hillock was also included on the flat site as a contrasting vertical element, created from the excavation of the lake. The original lake was a single body of water supporting aquatic planting on its perimeter. Instead of placing a floating fountain spewing water several stories into the air to announce the development, MSI envisioned a tranquil lake, allowing the more active fountain area further to the west to take center stage. The lake located in the eastern portion of the site was also intended as a termination point of the rubble wall. North of this wall, a heavy planting of both trees and shrubs was designed to screen a neighboring residential area that was not developed as a part of Ballantrae.

The central fountain feature was originally envisioned as a wet grotto area, appearing to be carved out of the hillock, with exposed vertical rock faces, splashing water and an interactive pop-jet fountain. Large boulders placed around the fountain feature provided seating and textural effects. It was designed to be the park’s centerpiece and main entry feature, oriented to face on-coming westbound traffic into the development.

To judge the competition, the developer elicited jurors from Ohio State University’s Department of Landscape Architecture along with the city of Dublin’s Parks and Recreation staff. MSI submitted the winning entry and design development began in spring 2001 with the goal of obtaining all city approvals, finishing construction documents, and starting construction within six months. But first, a couple of design issues had to be resolved.

Eighty-two pop-jet nozzles create two long arcs across the length of the fountain plaza. All of the water is supplied from a basin located underneath the suspended pre-cast fountain plaza panels.

Tweaking the Design

Tweaking or eliminating a park feature is often easier than suddenly integrating a major feature into a design that has already taken shape. At Ballantrae the major addition to the park design was a sculpture of three, 14-foot tall cast bronze dancing hares.

The sculpture, created by English artist Sophie Ryder, caught the eye of the developer who purchased them following a trip to Europe and challenged MSI to place them in the park. After much discussion, the sculpture was placed on top of the hillock because it provided the best opportunity to showcase the sculpture. As an entry element, the fountain and hillock created a stage for the hares, making an already strong entry feature to the community even more powerful.

The design team created a small feature out of the low rubble wall extending along the north edge of the site. In order to reduce the amount of grading, the lake was divided into two levels. Three openings extend across the divided levels. Water circulates between the upper and lower lake through a simple pumping system activating the waterfalls when there is little rainfall.

In addition, the presence of the hares on top of the hillock adjacent to the fountain added to the whimsical nature of the fountain plaza, further reinforcing original design concepts.

Other modifications were made to the fountain features. In addition to enlarging the plaza that contains the fountain, it was made more visible by raising the grotto wall to approximately 15-feet above the plaza. A waterfall was then added at the top of the wall for greater visual effect. Cascade nozzles froth water at the plaza floor, adding another water “event” for visitors. Then, in order to maximize the width of the fountain plaza, pop jets were stretched out in two arching rows in front of the cascades. This allowed for a variety of programming options with the pop-jets, the least of which were chase sequences or controlling whole sections of lines to either be on or off.

The design team also felt the grotto wall could contribute to the experience beyond being a simple rock wall. With the aid of students from the Columbus College of Art and Design, leprechaun faces were developed, sketched, and created for animating the wall. Students photographed themselves in leprechaun hats and beards and then transposed the images into a final design for six different faces. The students, with the help of their professor, created molds and final castings, complete with holes in their mouths, out of concrete-like material similar to the grotto wall.

A relief of a leprechaun was sculpted by art students from Columbus College of Art and Design and set into the grotto wall.

The Lakes

In addition to helping to control storm water runoff and providing flowering water plants, the ponds also act as a source for irrigation water. A sump system located approximately 10-feet from shore draws the water with a variable speed submersed pump, which supplies water to the entire park irrigation system.

The lakes are embellished by islands of bulrush and lotus along parts of the shoreline. Earthen shelves line parts of the perimeter, as well as at areas near the center of the lower lake at a proper depth to allow for the establishment of these plants. The lakes are also stocked with fish.

The Fountains

The main fountain feature spans more than 125-feet across the front of the hillock and consists of three separate but interdependent active water systems: a 16-foot long waterfall, 36 cascade nozzles, and 82 pop-jet nozzles creating two long arcs across the length of the fountain plaza. All of the water is supplied from a basin located underneath the suspended pre-cast fountain plaza panels.

The waterfall consists of a 10-foot high upper basin that fills and then spill water down onto the fountain plaza where the variable speed cascade jets push water up through holes in the three-foot square panels. Heights of the cascades range from one foot to three feet, perfect for toddlers learning to walk. Farther out from the cascades are two arching rows of computer-controlled pop-jet water switch nozzles spaced 30 inches apart that perform a number of timed sequences. The water spitting from the leprechaun faces are controlled with water switches as well. All the water used in the three features returns to the lower basin by draining through gaps between the panels.

The construction of the mechanical systems for the fountain had to be carefully planned and coordinated with the structural engineering requirements for the dual purpose 14-foot high retaining wall—the wall must retain the hillock on its backside and must support the Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) panels on its front. Because the mechanical equipment had to be located relatively close to the nozzles in the plaza, the mechanical room was placed directly behind the vertical structural wall. The wall and mechanical room were poured integrally, each resting on one large footing. Also, in order to maintain positive feed from the basin back to the fountain pumps behind the wall, the mechanical room floor was constructed at the same elevation as the bottom of the basin. This hid the mechanical room inside the hillock. It is accessible through a hatch located on top of the hillock just behind the retaining wall. The front of the 19-foot by 10-foot mechanical room not only became part of the supporting wall but also contained the supply, suction, electrical, and conduit lines that supply water and electricity to the submerged fountain components. These conduits were cast-in-place among the web of structural steel bars, complete with flanges, link seals, and waterstops to prevent any leakage of water from the basin back into the mechanical room.

“… the presence of the hares on top of the hillock adjacent to the fountain added to the whimsical nature of the fountain plaza, further reinforcing original design concepts.”

The adjacent basin was connected to the structural wall with reinforcing steel and poured. All submerged surfaces were waterproofed with all connections and penetrations being made prior to pouring any concrete.

As the basin was being completed, the grotto wall was taking shape with the application of the GFRC panels. The “look” of the grotto wall was based on an actual stone wall seen in the local quarry where large boulders were selected to place in the rill.

Once selected, the contractor mounted the panels to the structural wall and filled the voids between them with a similar GFRC material to make the rock surface continuous. To complete the finish, several layers of dyes and paints were added to the raw surface, resulting in extremely realistic-looking rock.

While the grotto wall was being constructed, the mechanical/plumbing system was being assembled in the basin, fortunately, by the same contractor building the grotto wall. Once the plumbing was completed and tested, the fountain pavement panels were set in place either on concrete piers or the top edge of the basin wall and the nozzles below were then mounted in their final locations. Specialty concrete was poured and finished to the same elevation as the panels to prevent trip hazards. The color and texture of the panels, the adjacent specialty concrete, and the grotto wall was coordinated for a unified look to resemble an exposed rocky surface.

In addition to containing pumping equipment, the mechanical room also contains a chlorination system, air circulation system, and a computer-based electrical panel to control all fountain components. A computer regulates the speed of the variable speed pumps controlling the heights of the cascade nozzles and determining when and how much water is to spill over the waterfall all while simultaneously controlling the 82 water switches that provide a variety of sequences and effects. Included in this system are the five “mouth” nozzles spitting water from the leprechaun faces connected to the grotto wall. A wind sensor is also connected to the system, designed to lower all the jets in times of high winds. Five pumps totaling nearly 75 horsepower are required to adequately power the fountain system.

The look of the grotto wall was based on an actual stone wall in a local quarry and was created using panels made from glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC). The contractor then mounted the panels to the structural wall and filled the voids between them with a similar GFRC material to make the rock surface continuous.

The park was dedicated in the fall 2002. Since that time, the park has seen its share of Easter egg hunts in the early spring and is visited by dozens if not hundreds of youngsters along with their parents during any warm summer day. As for the effect on the rest of the development, original projections of project build-out at eight to 10 years are now down to six to seven years. Officials at the Edwards Company attribute this success, in part, to the unique amenity that is Ballantrae Park.

John Petrushka, ASLA, is a Senior Associate and project manager for MSI, a 50 person landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm with offices in Columbus, Ohio and Orlando, Florida. He has extensive design and construction experience on dozens of urban design, urban park, commercial, and residential projects. Contact John at jpet@msidesign.com.