Landscape Architect & Specifier News

MAR 2014

LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.

Issue link: https://landscapearchitect.epubxp.com/i/274582

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 85 of 181

86 Landscape Architect and Specifier News Dust Devil Park, named for the nearby school mascot, is located on the southeast corner of 107th Avenue and Camelback. Approximately 14 acres, constructed with a budget of $4.6 million dollars for the city of Phoenix, this park was once a fenced-off dirt lot full of weeds, trash, and asphalt remnants, with an unsightly open-earth irrigation channel paralleling the western boundary. Sharing two of its edges with the Villa de Paz Elementary School to the east and the Villa de Paz neighborhood to the south, Dust Devil Park has been transformed into a point of pride for the community. The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department actively involved the community in the park's planning, which included a core stakeholder group of members from the adjacent neighborhood and students from the elementary school. The result of their efforts was the initial master plan and program for the park. One of the goals of this group was to remove the boundaries between the future park and the surrounding community, and embrace a sense of partnering between the city, school and neighbors. To help achieve this goal one of the site's major constraints was addressed by developing a partnership with the Roosevelt Irrigation District (RID) to tile the existing open canal. The result of this effort ensured RID's facility maintenance requirements were achieved, while providing additional area for park improvements. Piping of the canal also removed an eyesore and potential safety hazard for the community. The master plan called for the park to accommodate community parking, use of the school's field facilities for recreational leagues on the weekends and use of the picnic plazas for the leagues to gather and celebrate this sense of la familia. Pathways were developed throughout the park in measured exercise routes equipped with fitness stations, establishing physical fitness "laps" for park users. The pathways engage park patrons and link them to the restroom building, splash pad, playgrounds with shade structures, basketball court, skate plaza and picnic plazas. A Boulder-Strewn Waterway Water has always been a catalyst for the gathering and bonding of families and communities. The site, once an agricultural field, had Below These before images, looking east toward Villa de Paz Elementary School, show the field that became Dirt Devil Park, and the Roosevelt Irrigation District canal that parallels 107th Avenue. The road and canal created barriers for the neighborhoods on either side of the street. Before the new park design, children from both neighborhoods had to cross the street and the canal to get to their schools. BEFORE BEFORE 84-93.indd 86 2/28/14 5:10 PM

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Landscape Architect & Specifier News - MAR 2014