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The land where Stonegate Park resides was obtained through a cooperative venture between the village of Northbrook, Red Seal Homes, and the Northbrook Park District.
Red Seal Homes was made to donate the land in conjunction with their development agreement for a community of exclusive custom and semi-custom homes. Funding for the park improvements came through a 50 percent matching grant with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The park property is approximately 10.3 acres that abuts the primary highway (I-94) that links Chicago and Milwaukee. Therefore, approximately 50,000 cars per day whiz by the park site at high rates of speed. As part of the development requirements, a sound barrier wall was to be incorporated into the overall design to buffer the park and residents from the highway.
The development program for the park centered on an irrigated, game quality, adult sized soccer field with two additional soccer practice fields, two full sized softball fields, two high quality tennis courts, a community scale playground with a picnic shelter, a walking trail that circumnavigates the entire park, and a parking lot for 60 cars.
?EUR??,,????'??The development of Stonegate Park adds a much needed set of facilities within an underserved part of the Northbrook Park District, and the facilities provide relief to the high demand field requests for more soccer and softball,?EUR??,,????'?? said Ed Harvey, executive director of the Northbrook Park District. ?EUR??,,????'??The park supplements the needs of the growing soccer community, while providing a beautiful setting for park users in the neighborhood.?EUR??,,????'??
Phil Yoder, superintendent of parks added: ?EUR??,,????'??The design for this park blended the needs of the park district with special attention to the requests of the surrounding residents. Numerous meetings were conducted to make sure all concerns from each party were addressed.?EUR??,,????'??
The soccer field features a fully automated irrigation system, imported topsoil mix crowned to playing standards utilizing a premium athletic field seed mixture. The playground features two separate play areas, each with large scale composite equipment structures designed specifically for the differing ages. The first specializes in the needs of younger children ages two to five, and the larger of the two structures offering fun and challenges for children five to 12 years of age. Each of the playgrounds includes large areas of resilient poured-in-place rubber safety surfacing that provides ADA required accessible routes for children of all abilities. The colorful surfacing enriches the aesthetic value of the playground while providing easy access to many of the play features throughout the playground. Both playgrounds are completely under drained to an adjacent storm drain to extend the usable life of the shredded wood fiber safety surfacing.
As part of the park and housing development, a large, decorative sound barrier wall buffering the park and adjacent residents was constructed. The wall is built using two-colored, form-liner patterned precast concrete wall panels constructed to be 18 feet tall when complete. The addition of this wall completely masks the busy highway noise and makes the park a truly tranquil and passive location for visitors and nearby residents.
From the park, all signs of the once omnipresent highway are completely removed. The visual impact of the wall from inside the park was ?EUR??,,????'??softened?EUR??,,????'?? through the use of a variety of ornamental trees planted in organized groupings maximizing their individual seasonal color characteristics. The landscape plantings complement the wall, as it becomes an excellent backdrop to the seasonal display of varying colors added from flowering crabapples, dark green lustrous hawthorns, vivid fall color maples, and rich emerald green Austrian pines.
One of the largest challenges in the construction of the park was the tennis courts. The tennis courts were planned to be adjacent to the playground and shelter area. However, it was determined late in the construction document developmental stage that the developer had added almost seven feet of fill material from the construction of the homes in the nearby area.
This unstable foundation was rectified through over-excavating the entire subsurface to a depth of three feet, compacting that layer of the subbase, and installing geotextile fabric, two feet thick layer of three inches of crushed stone, an under drainage system connected to the storm sewer, and capping this with 10 inches of road base gravel. The tennis courts were then painted on two layers of one inch thick asphalt?EUR??,,????'??+a binder course followed by a finer mixed surfacing course. The fencing is black vinyl coated chain link fence to visually ?EUR??,,????'??disappear.?EUR??,,????'?? Decorative seating areas with curved benches set in colorful brick pavers are located two areas adjacent to the courts for viewing games in progress.
The entire perimeter of the park features extensive landscape plantings, especially on the north and south perimeters where nearly one million dollar homes face onto the park. Individual homeowners were consulted for their preferences as to the amount and type of landscape screening for privacy or how to maintain and accent their long view into the park. This process led to an interesting mix and variety of landscape plantings across the periphery of the park. Combined with the individual homeowner?EUR??,,????'???s landscapes (generally extensive in nature), a beautiful backdrop has been created for the many vistas in all directions from within the park.
The landscape plantings within the park create another set of interesting and unusual characteristics for the users with extensive prairie and wildflower plantings, complemented with a wide variety of colorful perennials near congregation areas within the park. The landscape plantings become elements of continuity within the park as these extensive pockets of plant materials Stonegate: surround the various congregation areas within the park. Sweeping shrub beds accented with large masses of perennials surround each of the playgrounds providing the separation requested for the two differing play areas. In addition, the shelter and tennis observation areas are set in a beautiful stands of color from the prairie grasses and ever-flowering perennials.
The parking lot was centered within the park providing easy access to all the amenities. The connecting walking path provides access to all the features within the park, from the parking lot to each of the play fields, to the playgrounds and shelter and to the tennis courts. The entire walking path is lighted with decorative pathway bollards for evening use. Many people use the trail for exercise, bike riding, walking their dogs, and making use of the many facilities within the park. Distance markers were integrated into the pathway to allow walkers, joggers and runners to keep track of distance and time themselves as they exercise. Intermittent benches and trash receptacles are placed along the path in strategic locations to allow for viewing activities at the playground, tennis courts, soccer fields, and the softball fields.
Funding for the park helped to contribute to the number of facilities and their quality through the assistance of a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) Grants are run on an annual cycle for the state, and provide millions in development opportunities for the park districts throughout the state.
Under this plan, the grant applicant submits a detailed drawing with accompanying information about what the park development will include, meets with the IDNR representative to review the proposal and the park site, and provides an estimate of cost by category of construction. Once the grant is awarded, the recipient park district builds the park and improvements with their own funds, and upon completion and satisfactory inspection of the work, applies for the previously agreed 50 percent share of the improvement costs. This source of state shared revenue has provided many wonderful improvements to parks throughout Illinois that might not otherwise have been possible, it is an excellent way to increase the quality and quantity of facilities and amenities for each of the parks this program helps develop.
Ed Harvey, executive director, Northbrook Park District Phil Yoder, superintendent of parks, Northbrook Park District Northbrook Park District Board Members Great Lakes Landscape, project general contractor Dan Dalziel, ASLA, principal of 3D Design Studio James Ramos, senior designer, 3D Design Studio
Raleigh, North Carolina
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
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