The playground in Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles should be ready by Nov. 2014. The design, a forest floor of berms, oversized leaves and a 20-foot tall Ipe tree house with slides, is by Rios Clementi Hale Studios, the original landscape architectural firm for Grand Park.
Photo: Rios Clementi Hale Studios

Grand Park in the Los Angels Civic Center district opened to acclaim in October 2012. Twelve years in the planning, the 12-acre park stretches from the Music Center on the west to City Hall on the east. The park features the spectacular restored Arthur Will Memorial Fountain and plaza, Olive Court, an expansive splash pad/wading pool, a terrace of drought tolerant plants, performance and event lawns and new buildings.

Now Grand Park is getting a playground, an addition spearheaded by Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who is also credited with leading the transformation of the original Civic Center site to the development of Grand Park.

Leveraging public and private resources, the play area is jointly funded by a $500,000 grant from First 5 LA www.first5la.org, which oversees the L.A. County funds derived from a 50-cent tax on tobacco products, and $500,000 from L.A. County Regional Park and Open Space District funds through Proposition A.

The new play area is the design of Rios Clementi Hale Studios, the original landscape architectural firm for Grand Park. The design is a fanciful forest setting featuring seven berms ranging from one to four feet tall. The berms will include rock-climbing handles, a rope climber and a tunnel. Above the forest floor will be a custom 20-foot-high tree house of Brazilian Ipe hardwood with bright lime-green accents, replete with a four-foot-tall roller slide and a 12-foot-tall tube slide, along with three tiers of platforms inside the climber. The Ipe and green combination will also be used for curved bench seating.

A soft play surface will resemble a forest floor with larger-than-life leaves on the ground, like playing on a mound of fall leaves, explains lead landscape designer Tony Paradowski, a senior associate at Rios Clementi Hale Studios. The area will also feature mature sycamore trees to provide a shade canopy.

Surrounding the playground will be a 3.5-foot-tall fence with a custom gate enclosure that also features leaves. Signage along the fence includes the words "Let's Play" in 25 languages spoken in L.A. County.