CommonGround

By Gary Warner, ASLA, AICP, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Orlando • Editor, Stephen Kelly

The artificial grass on Gopher Mountain provides a slick enough surface for sliding. Kids climb up through the mountain and slide back down and can also play “King of the Hill.”

Play is an essential component of every child’s life. It is vital to developing physical, mental, social and emotional well-being. Play helps them, and us, define who we are and who we want to be.

As children play they develop whole fitness, learn problem solving and communication skills, learn to set goals, stretch their imaginations through role playing, create new friendships and refine their sensory perceptions. Child?EUR??,,????'?????<

 

If you’ve ever been to the ASLA Expo or NRPA show, you’ve seen this! It’s fun to watch adults attempt to stand on Kompan’s slanting Supernova ring, particularly when it gets moving! A single child can explore its possibilities, but getting a whole group of kids on it makes for interesting dynamics. Of course you don’t have to stand. You can sit or lie on your stomach and spin around.

The butterfly shaped playground set the theme for the rest of the park and helps tell the story of Bailey’s Big Adventure. Each lobe of the butterfly’s wings offers a unique play experience.

CommonGround, in Lakeland, Fla. is a creative, fun, imaginative play experience where everyone of varying abilities has the opportunity to explore and discover themselves and their friends in the community. Editor’s note: If you have ever driven from Tampa to Orlando, you’ve been through Lakeland. It’s about half way along the journey through a lot of flat, marshy and timbered land that is mostly indistinguishable. Trivia note: The shopping center in the curious film “Edward Scissorhands” (1990) was in Lakeland, Fla.

CommonGround in Lakeland, Fla. combines traditional playground equipment, unstructured adventurous play and plenty of digging opportunities. The opening day event in December 2008 attracted nearly 1,000 visitors.

The series of terraces get climbed on by kids as much as any climbing wall. Handles to the upper walls allows kids to get out of their wheelchairs or walkers and climb the hill.

Bailey the Butterfly

Glatting Jackson developed the master plan and design development for this unique inclusive play environment based on the adventures of Bailey the Butterfly, a character developed by Glatting Jackson inspired by the idea that there are thousands of different types of butterflies and, like our children, no two are exactly alike.

Quite a bit of the modern play equipment encourages group or “social” play.

The play deck of this custom designed play structure is seven feet above the grade. Careful design of the walkway avoided the use of ramps for the new equipment. The intentional nonuse of ramps was to eliminate the perception that the playground was designed for the handicapped. Beneath the play deck is sheltered with shady play spaces with play panels and quiet spaces.

Bailey’s Big Adventure is about playing in the park and finding other butterflies with challenges (or disabilities) just like him/her. Bailey realizes that there are no butterflies like Bailey. Each is unique and special in his/her own way. Just like our children, each is unique and special.

Incorporating the rock designs over the slide gives kids an impression of sliding underground. While there are pathways to the top of the slide, many kids like to climb the rock formation back to the top.

Traditional post and deck play apparatuses are being supplemented with equipment that requires more agility, balance and a multitude of play possibilities.

Children are invited to follow and explore on Bailey’s Big Adventure at CommonGround, where they can safely explore their different or common experiences. The playground is designed to have a wide variety of experiences from motion on swings and slides, to tactile sensations in the discovery garden or just quiet times at the reading chair.

The boys are running upstream through the shallow water being pumped by their friends at a traditional hand-operated well pump. Children with limited upper body strength can activate water sprays and fountains via foot pedals. The kids would probably be incredulous that not that long ago families often had to dig wells for water and used a hand pump to bring the water up. No foot pedals back then!

Buried beneath certain areas of the large sand pit are “fossils” that can be discovered and explored. For development skills, buckets and shovels allow kids to learn how to manipulate objects and practice fine motor skills.

Specialty Design Elements

Specialty design elements, such as motion-activated interpretive signs detailing the life of a butterfly, provide learning opportunities for everyone. Motion-activated elements allow unsighted children the same learning opportunity as everyone else. The play areas are categorized by skill levels, not by age group, and are easily explained through colorful graphic and speaking signs.

CommonGround incorporates sculpture pieces of kids throughout the park. The little girl with the watering can sprays water when kids activate foot pedals.

What started with a conversation, a mother of a child with special needs, has developed into the most unique and successful inclusive park in Florida. When the mother explained to the city officials that her daughter’s recreational needs were not met by the local playgrounds in the city parks, the quest to create CommonGround began. The problem was a lack of funds in the city budget to construction CommonGround, but the adventures of Bailey the Butterfly sparked everyone’s imagination and became the vehicle to tell the story of the importance and need for playgrounds designed for everyone of any ability. Once the story was told, the local community opened their hearts to the project and their wallets. Through a series of fundraisers, donations and grants, the city received nearly $1,300,000 of the $1,900,000 construction costs.

CommonGround
City of Lakeland, Fla.

Design Team
Owner: City of Lakeland Parks and Recreation Dept.
Park Master Plan, Design Development: Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin (Orlando)
Architecture, Design Development: Furr & Wegman, Lakeland, Fla.
Civil Engineering, Permitting: BCI Engineers & Scientists, Lakeland, Fla.
General Contractor: Rodda Construction, Lakeland, Fla.

Playground Manufacturers
Kompan
Landscape Structures
Playmore Systems
Xccent

Site Furnishings
DuMor

Safety Surfacing
Forever Lawn Playground Grass
TotTurf

Shelters
Poligon

Shade Sails
Landscape Structures

Landscaping
Donated by Home Depot and installed by city staff
and Home Depot volunteers.