In 2015, Warner Larson was brought in as a subconsultant and the Landscape Architect for new construction on the existing campus of Stoughton High School. The scope of their work enveloped the entire campus, including driveways, parking zones, entrance plazas, the outdoor café/courtyard learning area, and all athletic facilities - from feasibility analysis and design to construction administration and close out. The most unique space, however, was the streetscape park that was ideated during design.

A Layout Change
During design development, the stadium was located closer to one of the main streets, with a 30-foot buffer between the bleachers and the street sidewalk. Since the backside of a stadium with its supporting infrastructure is not the most appealing to look at, it is usually dressed up with wall cladding, which can be expensive to install, or screened off with printed windscreen banners or landscape hedging. The latter was suggested to the design team to balance the overall costs of the project.

However, one of the design committee members who also happened to be on the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) suggested that there was a great opportunity to create some kind of linear park that would benefit not just the students but also the residents of the town of Stoughton. This park would be funded separately by the CPC. The idea was well received and approved by the board, and thus Warner Larson began designing the streetscape park.

The Details
The open space between the Stoughton HS Knights' Stadium and Pearl Street - which is a 10-minute walk from downtown Stoughton - was, as mentioned, 30 feet wide and 325 feet in length. With the support of the town's Community Preservation Act, the idea was to create an immersive pocket park that would showcase the various green initiatives used on the school campus, which achieved a LEED Gold status. This park, with its adjacency to the Pearl Street sidewalk, would also provide a passive streetscape experience.

Design Vision and Goal
For the streetscape to stand out, the design team proposed including key vertical elements, like an entrance sign and educational panels that looked like art to highlight the green initiatives. In generating an immersive experience in a long, linear space, the goal was to create a meandering pathway amidst seasonal, textured landscape planting that would somewhat buffer the street while making pedestrians feel safe.

 
Design Method/Process
With the vision embraced by the school committee and the CPC, the next step was identifying which key green principles to highlight among those being used on the school campus. These included LED lighting, a rain garden, permeable pavement, recycled materials, water conservation, and native plantings. The team created a few visual renderings of the vertical educational signs before finalizing the custom leaf-shaped sign atop a curved post resembling a stalk, which they felt evoked a familiar sentiment with all age-groups. These designs were worked in conjunction with Landscape Structures, a company that primarily focuses on playgrounds but who also does park signs. The colors were customized from an RAL palette. Bright chartreuse with lavender was specified to offer a striking visual contrast.

The material chosen for the curved pathway was PIP concrete due to its ease of maintenance, its cost compared to pavers, and fewer joints for elderly accessibility. The two-color pattern enhances the curved pattern, further slowing the walker's pace and increasing the immersive feel. Contrasting light colors were chosen based on their high SRI (solar reflective index) values. To offset the impermeability of the concrete walkway, two areas with permeable pavers were worked out with the grading to collect some of the run-off. The plantings and rain garden served the same purpose.

With this framework set, the other goal was to screen the backside of the bleachers with interesting evergreen buffer and to create a low-maintenance seasonal ornamental landscape. This objective was met by placing a mix of native planting alongside some non-native plants that were chosen for their adaptability to urban conditions, such as landscape shrub roses.

The Landscape
The goal of the planting was to highlight two key things: creating a textured landscape by selecting plants of differing heights and creating repetition in plant combinations and color patterns to make the linear park experience cohesive and to accentuate its length. The color scheme for the plantings was chartreuse, light pink, and lavender. The varying shades of these colors create further depth. For example, the lavender color of the perennial Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii 'Walker's Low') and the darker purple of the perennial May Night Sage (Salvia x sylvestris 'May Night) have an overlapping season and complement each other. For ease of maintenance, the plant groupings were massed together, and the design team provided a landscape maintenance manual post-construction.

Other Amenities
Along with an immersive walking experience, it was also important to create resting and social spaces. For the comfort of folks of all abilities, the resting spaces included backed benches with armrests. Considering that this space was also part of the high school campus, the color of the precast seat walls used on the school campus were also used here, but further customized by including cantilever wood seats by the park entrance. To make the social space even more interactive, the design team also specified custom chess tables.

The entire process was a fun collaboration involving key stakeholders and input from the CPC. The only challenge was choosing the final name of this streetscape park from a variety of great names suggested by everyone, from students and faculty to residents. The designation "Knights Walk" was the final choice, considering that the park was still on school property and that the Knight is the Stoughton High School team's mascot. The custom-fabricated entrance sign displaying the park's name plays off the leaf motif seen on the educational art signs.

Project Success
The striking layout of the ground plane and the seasonal colorful planting achieves the effect of a pleasure sidewalk stroll. The incorporation of sustainable elements, celebrated through signs that also function as art, spreads the importance of green initiatives not just for the Town of Stoughton, but for everyone. Since its opening, the park has been well received and embraced by the school and the community.

TEAM LIST
Client: Town of Stoughton and DRA Architects
Design Firm: Warner Larson Landscape Architects
Design Team:
David Warner, Principal/Project Manager
Sameer Bhoite, Design Director
Owner's Project Manager: Vertex
Civil Engineer: Nitsch Engineering
Irrigation: Brian Vinchesi
Electrical: Griffith & Vary, Inc
General Contractor: Consigli Construction Co.
Landscape Contractor: Xquisite Landscaping