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In 1890, the federal government purchased 160 acres of rich farmland from a local landowner for $9,000. Federal officials opened the Phoenix Indian School one year later. At its peak in 1935, 900 students attended the school. Among its most popular features was its marching band, a frequent participant in local and statewide festivals, and athletic program. The federal government closed the boarding school in 1990.
The city of Phoenix was able to obtain the land in 1996 through an intricate three-way land swap involving the Baron Collier Company and the federal government. The Phoenix Community Alliance, a nonprofit organization committed to the renewal of Phoenix's Central City, has been an influential force in determining the future of the park by raising private funds for its development.
Representatives of 26 Arizona-based Native American tribes were invited to work with the Phoenix Parks, Recreation and Library Department, industry professionals, local business leaders and Phoenix residents to create the overall concept of Steele Indian School Park.
The park was created in the spirit of the City Beautiful movement, a theory that evolved at the turn of the nineteenth century. Its basic premise is simple. City dwellers need passive (or unstructured), open, green space in city centers to serve as an escape from the physical confinement of urban living. It was the City Beautiful movement that spawned the Washington, D.C. Mall.
Steele Indian School Park also incorporates the site's Native American history. Many of the elements in the park are based on and reflect Native American concepts of life, the earth and the universe.
The park is composed of four separate areas: the Circle of Life, Entry Garden, the Neighborhood Park and the Phoenix Green. Each area offers something unique making the park a place for people of all ages.
Leading from the Circle of Life is an Arbor Bridge that leads into the 15-acre Entry Garden, which also makes use of circular form. The Entry Garden features a spiraling walkway that gradually descends down into the earth. Along the trail, Native American poems are etched into the concrete. Native plants adorn the path as it winds its way to toward a cistern of water at the end of the trail.
The Entry Garden presented a number of different construction challenges noted Mike Bornhoeft, project manger for construction. First, was the reuse of the concrete from the original roadways. The concrete was excavated, and the larger, manageable pieces recycled. The spiraling walkway that encircles the Entry Garden was constructed from the concrete.
The cistern found in the Entry Garden is constructed from concrete and exposed aggregate. The water pours onto a level surface, evenly distributing itself across the cistern and into the garden pond.
"Making a fountain that doesn't leak and getting the finishes we were looking for was a challenge," says Bornhoeft in regard to the perfectly level cistern that required a lot of grinding to perfect.
The circle is a symbol central to Native American life. It's a representation of life, a never-ending process. It is the architectural inspiration for this part of the park. The sidewalk that forms the ring of the "Circle of Life" encompasses a water-filled cistern and the three historic buildings of the old Indian School.
The concrete construction throughout the Circle of Life maintains a rubble wall theme similar to the Entry Garden. There are concrete benches on the Circle of Life that were cast and sand blasted.
The 15-acre Neighborhood Park on the north side of the park features a playground, two half-court basketball courts and a sand volleyball court. Ramadas provide shade for picnics and parties and provide shelter for parents supervising their children. The edge of the Neighborhood Park is marked through the use of low walls, grade changes and plants.
The tree selection in the park includes sycamores, Chinese elms, cottonwwods and date palms. Other plant materials include bougainvillea, agave and desert spoon.
The Phoenix Green is 30 acres of rolling grass terrain, meandering walkways and clusters of trees. The raised walkways follow a canal that feeds the lake and provides water to the grass fields of the Phoenix Green. This area of the park provides a shady oasis with a mix of larger-scale deciduous and evergreen trees that provide a backdrop for the entire site. The Phoenix Green, completed in 2002, also offers many picnic ramadas.
The lake areas were an additional challenge for landscape contractors revealed Bornhoeft. Almost three acres of the property is devoted to manmade lakes. The three water elements are found in different sections of the park. The water for the lakes comes from the Salt River Project in the nearby Arizona Canal. The canal is piped into the site and is used for flood irrigation for the northeast portion of the park. The rest of the park uses water pumped from the lakes for irrigation.
When the lakes were originally completed, they proved problematic - there were leaks. They had to be entirely reconstructed, adding an extra year to the ongoing project.
The maintenance for Steele Indian School Park is an everyday operation. Steele Indian's 75 acres are irrigated by sprinklers, drip, and flood irrigation. With the exception of the flood irrigation, the system is operated by the Rain Bird Maxi Com System. There is a playground, two basketball courts and two sand volleyball courts that are policed and inspected daily.
Mowing is done on a weekly basis, cut at a height of two-and-a-half inches. Aeration and fertilization is scheduled every six weeks. Herbicides are sprayed every three months to maintain weed control. The park's water features have pump and filter systems that are cleaned biweekly. The three manmade lakes are filled with flood irrigation water to maintain a constant level, as this same water is used in conjunction with a pump system for irrigation of the turf, trees and shrubs.
The varieties of trees throughout the park are cottonwoods, sycamores, mesquites, palo brea, Chinese elm and date palms. Taller shrubs consist of bougainvillea, agave, ocotillo, and saguaro. Smaller shrubs utilized are desert spoon, red yucca, creosote and angelica daisies. Desert areas of the park are dressed with desert rose and apache pink. Trimming is done on a continuous basis.
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Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
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