Desert Park & Play for Adults, Kids… and Dogs

Editor, Stephen Kelly

The design inspiration for the park’s third play area is the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. Looks like it has run aground and a bit off course! A fog fountain (Mee Industries), designed in the ground plane in front of the ship’s bow, offers imaginative possibilities—a ship sailing through a New England fog bank, all hands on the lookout for shoals or coastal rock formations, seeking safe harbor. The ship play structure is by Little Tikes and the poured-in-place rubber surfacing by Safeguard.

Freedom Park
Country Club Dr. & Liberty Dr.
Palm Desert, Calif.

Design Principal: Chris Giannini, David Evans and Associates, Inc.

In 2001, the city of Palm Desert, Calif. requested design assistance from David Evans and Associates, Inc. for a 23-acre park site to give the community sports fields, courts and play areas. One design element was to communicate and celebrate the freedoms U.S. citizens enjoy.

The design team wanted a variety of recreation opportunities for the community, and that’s what they delivered. For the adults, the park offers three lighted softball fields. You’ve seen them out them—people who join their company’s co-ed softball team and compete in league play. The ladies are out for a little fun and rec, but the guys compete as if they’re going for the gold and glory, perhaps overcompensating for that pop fly dropped in Little League play that lost the game.

The Freedom Park welcoming sign was sandblased and colored by The Signworks.

One lighted soccer field lets future World Cuppers hone their skills. We predict lots of bruised shins in their future.

The three lighted basketball courts offer the next Larry Bird hours of shooting practice long after the sun sets over the desert mountains. Editor’s note: In my school days I’d shoot baskets most evenings at a school playground. When the light was gone, I kept going, barely making out the rim via some light spillage from building lights. Point being, in my youth, outdoor lighted basketball courts did not exist, so this is pretty cool.

It’s not exactly Huntington Beach volleyball, i.e., no ocean to cool off in, but the park’s two lighted sand volleyball courts could be the breeding ground for future Olympians, or maybe just a fun place to hang out with friends and have some laughs while knocking the ball around.

Four precast raised-star planters (Quickcrete) in a colonial brick shade with an acid etch finish are positioned at the pedestrian entrance to the park. The walkway is lined with cercidium ‘Desert Museum’ trees with large angular cobble rock underneath. The inset of the planter shows Mediterranean fan palms and Queen Victoria agaves that reduce water consumption and lessen landscaping care.

The two lighted tennis courts will be kept busy in the evenings. Note to novice players—The desert heat makes the balls fly further and faster, so have your racket strung tighter!

All these lighted facilities of course optimize usage, but the reality of that intense desert heat makes evening and night play essential. And speaking of el sol, two play areas have shade canopies and a third play area offers a cooling fogging system.

Our best friends have their own park, a dog park that is, segregated into two areas—one for small breeds and the other for the larger canines.

Because people everywhere enjoy picnicking, there are five gazebos, two with misting systems. There are not one but two restroom facilities, which is an excellent idea. Other amenities include a community garden; a covered plaza with tables and chairs; a small stage area; a concession facility; a large nonprogrammed turf area; over a mile of walking paths and a skateboard node.

In 2001, the city of Palm Desert, Calif. requested design assistance from David Evans and Associates, Inc. for a 23-acre park site that would bring green space and recreational areas to the community, but also celebrate the freedoms we enjoy. The final design used patriotic icons and colors for this unifying theme.

Life Bronzes and Pedestals

The main pedestrian entrance to the park presents life-size bronze sculptures that depict the sacrifices Americans sometimes make for their country. Further patriotic elements are the bronze logos representing the U.S. armed forces—surrounding the bronze sculptures—and the “stars and stripes” designs on the benches, tables, trash receptacles, specialty lights and raised-star shaped planters. There are 10 star-shaped pedestals stationed around the park perimeter. Each pedestal has a bronze plaque with information about rights of U.S. citizens and our history.

Two of the three play areas incorporate large shade canopies and separate play areas and equipment (Kompan) for pre-schoolers (ages 2-5) and children ages 5-12.

Sustainable Elements

Water use is always a concern in the low desert. All of the planter areas, apart from the sports fields, sport desert plants to conserve water. The plantings are also spaced generously apart to reduce maintenance. The planters in the parking lot contain only trees—no shrubs—to reduce water consumption. Decomposed granite gravel and rock cobble are used throughout the park to aid in maintaining moisture in the native soil. Wasteful run-off to paved areas of the park was reduced through the use of smaller spray heads adjacent to paved areas in the park.

The three lighted basketball courts give youth and adults the opportunity to display their b-ball skills. The older athletes will appreciate the cushioning and grip of the slip-resistant sport surfacing applied to the top of the concrete courts. The lighting (Delta Lighting) is essential for Palm Springs court play, especially for the older, less fit athletes disinclined to run and gun in 100 plus temperatures.

The park is using potable water for its irrigation needs, but the irrigation system was designed and installed to deliver reclaimed water in the future. The ball field area of the park serves as a detention basin for high-flow periods. Two small basins are deep enough to handle the daily and low-water flows that enter the park from adjacent housing developments. The basins allow the water to recharge the ground table rather than being piped directly into the storm drain system.

Decomposed granite gravel and rock cobble throughout the park help maintain moisture in the landscape, increase plant spacing and reduced water consumption in non-sportfield areas. Acacia smallii trees and Hesperaloe parviflora (red yucca) complement the landscape.

About David Evans and Associates, Inc.

Back in the mid-1970s, David Evans, a 30-something engineer and surveyor with a comfortable job, felt his career was missing some important pieces—like freedom, vision and fun!

In April 1976, Mr. Evans, “with only a calculator, a door for a desk, a couple of great clients and high hopes,” ventured forth on his own and founded David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA).

His belief was if he gave people the freedom and support to pursue their ambitions, he would attract great people. And great people would do great work, which would attract more great clients.

In Palm Springs, the three most important amenities are air-conditioning, swimming pools (not that anyone is swimming) and shade. The Freedom Park design offers ample shade areas and covered spaces (fabric shade systems by Shade Structures) to ward off the intense desert sun. The patriotic tables and benches (Quickcrete) let adults watch the playground action in comfort.

Three decades later, DEA has grown into a national leader in sustainable design and management solutions in the areas of transportation, energy, water resources, land development design and planning. The firm’s landscape architects have created award-winning designs and master plans for parks and trails, residential and commercial development and environmental restoration projects.

The colorful half-star paving pattern uses mixed concrete pavers (Ackerstone). The white pavers on site have embedded blue glass. Fan Tex ash, Convolvulus, chrysactinia and Eremophila are the flora.

The company is consistently ranked among Engineering News Record’s Top 100 Pure Design firms in the U.S. DEA has an employee stock ownership program, generous benefits and compensation. CE News ranks DEA as one of the “Best Engineering Firms to Work For.”

Freedom Park’s “stars and stripes” design elements carry over to the benches, tables, trash receptacles, specialty lights and raised-star shaped planters.

Palm Desert

Palm Desert (pop. 49K) is in the Coachella Valley, about 11 miles east of Palm Springs, about a two hour drive southeast from Los Angeles. The valley is sheltered to the north by the Little San Bernardino Mountains, the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south and the San Jacinto Mountains to the west. Notice the snow-tipped mountains that rise from the desert floor!

Summer high temps reach above 100 degrees and sometime exceed 120. The Agua Caliente tribe of the Cahuilla Indians called the area “Se-Khi” (boiling water).

Palm Desert didn’t get its name until 1951. It was Old MacDonald Ranch until the 1920s, then called Palm Village, a reference to the plantings of numerous date palms. Residential development began in 1943 with the presence of an Army maintenance camp. The area was used during WWII to train troop and tank battalions for General George Patton’s Third Army.

After the war, L.A. developer Clifford Henderson began building his “dream community.” Golf courses and golf clubs proliferated. The master planned community of only 1,500 residents was incorporated in 1973.

Today, Palm Desert is home to 17 resort hotels, 24 golf clubs and 15 shopping centers and plazas.

Those seeking sights more in keeping with the natural environment will appreciate Palm Desert’s Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. Native plants are de rigueur, as annual rainfall is about five inches. And if you want to get away from all that’s man made, it’s just steps off the main roads—desert stretching from the low desert lands here in the southern end of the Coachella Valley all the way up to Joshua Tree National Monument in the northern high desert.

The life-size bronze sculptures located at the main pedestrian entrance to the park depict freedom’s ultimate sacrifice. This sculpture shows a mourning mother kneeling and clutching a folded American flag. Her young son holds a toy airplane. The bronze shadow he casts along the ground is of an armed soldier.

Bronze logos (below) representing the U.S. armed forces surround the bronze sculptures, with star-shaped lights installed in a circle in the paving around the sculptures. The white pavers are flecked with a blue glass finish.

The Palm Desert Visitor Center had 50 cacti stolen in one night. Golden barrels are the most targeted, as they have shallow roots.

Over a Barrel

Palm Desert officials report recent loss of about $20,000 worth of landscaping plants. The main theft is of golden barrel cacti, which sell for $100-$800 depending on their girth.

The problem is so prevalent that surveillance cameras are being employed near large concentrations of barrel cacti in the city landscaping. Local authorities may even implant microchips into the barrels to track the city property.