Alga Norte Park in Carlsbad, Calif., has two age-appropriate playgrounds (2-5 years old and 5-12 years old). All the playground equipment and the safety surfacing are universally accessible. There are three types of swings, a modern version of monkey bars, dual slides, platforms and colorful shade fabrics abounding. According to Shade Structures of Costa Mesa, Calif., the air circulating through the polyethylene mesh fabric can reduce temperatures beneath the structures by as much as 30 percent. Lighting for the playgrounds and dog park is LED.
Photos: KTU+A

Scope of Work
In 2001, the city of Carlsbad selected the landscape architecture firm of Wimmer Yamada and Caughey (WYAC) to develop a master plan for a 32-acre community park in one of the city's newer developing communities. Carlsbad (pop. 110,972) is a well-healed seaside community along a seven-mile stretch of Pacific shores 35 miles north of downtown San Diego.

Throughout the next 18 months, the WYAC design team and the city's parks and recreation staff worked closely together with local residents in a collaborative effort to design the park. Public meetings and "hands-on" workshops were held in an effort to gather input and build consensus on the community's desires and needs, and then incorporate them into the design of the park. In 2002, a final master plan was created by the team, and in turn was approved by the city council.

The tot lot offers sliding, climbing, tunneling, a curving balance beam, a sand pit with built-in diggers, and sound play elements.
Photos: KTU+A

Acting as prime consultant, WYAC selected and worked with a talented team of design consultants and city of Carlsbad staff to create the final design and produce construction documents. The design disciplines included the architect, public artist, aquatic design firm, skate park designer, civil engineer, electrical/mechanical/plumbing engineers, structural engineer, and kitchen designer.

Within two years, a full set of construction documents were prepared by the WYAC team, approved by the Carlsbad City Council, and put out to public bid, only to be placed on hold, one of the many development halts during the 2009 economic downturn. In 2011, the city council was ready to move forward again, this time under a modified design-build program that allowed for incorporating state-of-the-art features. During the design-build phase, city staff was heavily involved in the construction administration and updating the design. WYAC provided design oversight, ensuring the park was built according to the original design intent of the master plan and original construction documents.

Photovoltaic panels in the parking lot will produce approximately 380,000-kilowatt hours of electricity a year, bringing the park close to zero net energy. Solar thermal panels at the Aquatic Center preheat the pools.
Photo: City of Carlsbad

Aquatic Center
Being a community park in size and scale, the design for Alga Norte ("seaweed north" in Spanish) was able to accommodate a variety of components and features large and small. One of the key features of the park is a magnificent aquatic center, with an Olympic-size competition pool (heated salt water, four diving boards, a moveable bulkhead, sports lighting and grandstand bleachers), a 25-yard 12-lane instructional pool, a warm water outdoor therapy spa for adults and a splash pad for children of all ages. Adjoining the swimming pools there are community meeting rooms, a fitness room, a concession stand, lockers/changing rooms, restrooms and administration offices. Keeping the aquatic center's water clean and warm requires a lot of energy, and numerous sustainable design features minimize demand, such as a solar thermal heating system that preheats pool water before it enters the high-efficiency heaters. Also, high-efficiency pump motors operate at slower speeds, thus reducing energy demand. Along with the architect and city staff, the internationally acclaimed aquatic design firm created a world-class venue for the public's use and enjoyment.

Architecturally, the beautiful buildings and facilities speak softly of the California countryside, capturing the essence of the surrounding community with their warm earth-tone colors and Mediterranean style. The architect included many design details that greatly enhanced the project without necessarily raising the cost of the project.

Alga Norte Skate Park, located in view of the playground on the edge of a large native area drainage basin, is a boomerang like shape design. The design was led by former pro skateboarder Kanten Russell of Stantec's Action Sports Group (original team member), with Charles Strawter Design, Inc. (design-build construction phase team). There are two bowls (one 6' deep, and one 8' deep), along with a dynamic layout of urban street components for more skilled skateboarders. The skate park was designed to accommodate beginners and experienced skaters. There beginners' area is closest to the playground. The skate park has pedestrian-scale sports lighting. The ornamental steel security fencing is "Montage II' (Ameristar Fence Products).

Topographic Solutions
The 32-acre park site features natural topography with 70 feet of elevation change from the highest to the lowest point, providing challenges for designing stormwater systems. The solutions include bioswales running along the length of the east and south perimeters of the park that cleanse the stormwater prior to discharge into the public stormwater system.

The surrounding natural open spaces remain preserved and protected as a part of the city's plan, which includes an additional 10 acres of California coastal sage scrub habitat on the north and west sides of the park. The beautiful natural topography creates elevation changes that bring interest and depth to the park and enhances the vistors' experience.

Sustainable Elements
From a sustainable perspective, the park incorporates many energy-efficient and sustainable features: LED site lighting; use of recycled water for irrigation; thermal solar panels to help heat the water in the pools; energy-efficient pool pumps and water quality units; photovoltaic panels in the parking lot"?uall focused on reduce energy use and offsetting maintenance costs.

The Aqua Norte Aquatic Center features a 56-meter competition pool with a bulkhead and viewing bleachers, a 25-yard 12-lane swim instructional pool, a warm water spa for adults and a splash pad for children. Aquatic Design Group was the designer. City officials expect to recover 99 percent of the park's approximately $1.2 million annual operations and maintenance costs with pool fees and facility rentals by its second year of operation.

Consultants
As mentioned, in 2011 the project transitioned to a design-build format. As a result the general contractor was required to assemble a team of design consultants to recertify and implement the most current building codes into the previously completed construction documents. This partnership between the city, WYAC (as original designers) and the general contractor was very successful because the city retained WYAC's services throughout construction, ensuring the park's design intent was followed through to completion.

Skate Park
Another key feature of the park is the challenging and much-loved skate park, with two separate deep bowls (one 6-ft. max. and one 8-ft. max.), along with a dynamic layout of urban street components. The skate park was designed to accommodate everyone from beginners to experienced skaters. Also, it is well lighted for nighttime use. It is truly amazing to see the number of skaters that enjoy this feature of the park every single day throughout the year.

Public artist Paul Hobson's talents and creative ideas brought further interest to the park with the vertical "swim and dive" wall relief panels of copper, brass and stainless steel at the Aquatic Center, graphically depicting divers and swimmers in stop action. Paul's work is also seen on the colorful "pool towel" glass mosaics inlayed into the surfaces of poured-in-place concrete seat walls and benches.

Play for Kids, Youth, Adults and Dogs
The park has two age-appropriate playgrounds (2-5 years old and 5-12 years old) with universal accessibility. There is a regulation size full court basketball court and one half-size basketball court, both lighted. There are three multipurpose ball fields with soccer field overlays and sports lighting. The baseball plaza sports a concession stand, with shaded areas for picnic tables and barbecues.

The off-leash dog park is sectioned into three areas for different size dogs: large dogs, smaller dogs and a segregated area for pups. The surfacing for all spaces is wood chips. The big dog area has ramps, tunnels and obstacles.

Online reviews of the park often begin with "Wow," and make positive comments about the dog park. There are two main separated dog areas, one for larger breeds, and one for the smaller pooches. There's even a third fenced area, a kind of "time out" for "bad" dogs. The big dog space offers a play ramp, tunnel, table and water fountains for canines and people. Some complain that some parents allow their children to play on and in the dog obstacles. (Attention parents: The park also has an excellent playground for children further to the north.) The surfacing for the dog park is wood chips, a choice to assist in long-term maintenance needs.

Colorful Fabric Shades
Fabric shade structures provide sun protection for part users, while energizing the area with a pop of vibrant color. Fabric shade structures complement design of the park in shades of rain forest, desert sand and laguna blue.

"We incorporated shade at the ball field picnic plaza, picnic shelter areas, tot lots, basketball courts, group picnic shelters, aquatic center concessions areas and the picnic shelter pool deck," explains Liz Ketabian, park planning manager for the city of Carlsbad. Multiple shade designs and structural types work together beautifully to create the desired look the city and planners intended. "We selected green ("rain forest') and tan ("desert sand') colors mainly in areas of ball fields, and for the dog park. Bright blue ("laguna') was used at the Aquatics Center in the heart of the park," Ketabian adds.

As the 32-acre park does not have mature shade trees, an important addition was 36 shade structures in nine designs: multicolored 8-point "Twilites'; custom cantilever pyramids; "Mariners'; "Hips'; "Waves'; "Slanted Hips'; single-post cantilevers; single-post pyramids; and 4-point "Hypar Sail' structures in Laguna blue and desert sand fabrics, which complement the overall design and color themes. The team chose to incorporate shade structures reaching as high as 21 feet. The "Mariner' shade for the picnic area covers a seating space spanning 40' x 40'. The picnic area at the ball fields offers a concession stand, clean restrooms, picnic tables and barbecues.

Shade Structures of Costa Mesa, Calif., designed and manufactured 36 shade structures, consisting of nine design concepts: multicolored 8-point "Twilites', custom cantilever pyramids, "Mariners', "Hips', "Waves', "Slanted Hips', single-post cantilevers, single-post pyramids and 4-point "Hypar Sail' structures in laguna blue and desert sand fabrics that complement the overall design and color themes.

"We worked with the landscape architects on the project to select the colors and also took into consideration the ongoing maintenance and aesthetics of the local master planned community when making the color selections," notes Ketabian. The decision to add shade structures to the park was mainly for sun protection, but also for aesthetics. There's a lot of area to cover in a 32-acre park that does not have mature shade trees. Each area has a specific design accent. The team chose to incorporate shade structures reaching as high as 21 feet. The "Mariner' shade for the picnic area covers a seating space spanning 40' x 40'.

At the skate park and basketball courts an overlapping hyperbolic sail motived a two tone color scheme. The sail design allowed high and low connection points, twisting the fabric for a dynamic appearance. Synthetic materials like high-density polyethylene mesh make the shades resistant to tears, fading and block up to 96 percent of the UV rays, according to the manufacturer. These fabrics are water resistant and designed to bear significant winds or snow. Snow does not fall in Carlsbad, but it does get plenty of bright sunlight. Air circulates through the fabrics and can reduce temperatures beneath the structures by as much as 30 percent.

Two of the baseball fields, the soccer field and the borders of the skate park have artificial grass ("GameDay Grass 3DXtreme-52') from the pioneer in synthetic turfgrass, AstroTurf. The artificial turf particularly stands out on the infield and warning tracks, as it mimics red clay, and in the field striping. A third baseball field to the north, the largest in the park, is genuine turfgrass, a hybrid bermuda (Cynodon x "Tifway 419'), solid sod, overseeded with perennial ryegrass. The soccer field is laid out in the outfield of the second ballfield, acting as a double-duty sports field.

Public Art
Public artist Paul Hobson was brought into the project early in the design work. His energy, talents and creative ideas brought life and excitement into the design. The vertical "swim and dive" wall relief panels that channel people into the Aquatic Center just inside the main entry are constructed of copper, brass and stainless steel. They graphically depict divers and swimmers in stop-action. There are also colorful "pool towel" glass mosaics inlayed into the surfaces of poured-in-place concrete seat walls and benches for further interest.

Awards
Alga Norte Community Park has already received two very prestigious awards: the 2014 "Award of Excellence" from the California Park & Recreation Society, and the 2014 "Public Works Project of the Year" from the San Diego & Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Public Works Association.