Landscape Master Plan for the Playground

Click here to open the full size Landscape Master Plan.

Project Focus

We want to state right from the beginning that this project isn’t just about making our playground look nicer or “greening” the community. It isn’t only about making River Heights a better place to live. While these goals will be achieved through the project, this is also what we want: We want to offer kids more – more than simply a rectangular field, an oval track, a rectangular hard top, and an old playground structure. We want them to feel good about themselves, build self-esteem and improve their physical and mental well-being. We want them to be able to explore, jump, spin, run, catch, roll, slide, toboggan, sit, talk, act, imagine, hide, seek, balance, and sweat.

Here are some ideas about what kids currently do and what we expect to see once Phase 1 of the playground is done:

                                                         

Current recess activity	2014-2015 recess activity
One child pulling another on a toboggan across a flat field until he or she gets tired (or bored because its not fast enough).	Three or four children on one toboggan going down a hill; working out who pulls the toboggan back up.
Kids shovelling snow so that they can build a shelter to play in and protect them from the wind.	Kids shovelling snow so that they can make snow forest among the berms and trees in the aspen forest.
Children huddling together by the doors to protect from the wind; they are laughing and talking and waiting to go inside.	Children sitting on berms or logs or boulders, unconcerned about the time or temperature, and just enjoying the fresh air.
Teacher playing soccer after school with the children.	Teachers outside using the amphitheatre as an outdoor classroom; teacher and students investigating the soil or insects that live in the ditch; students checking the weather station.
One play structure where classrooms must follow a schedule as to when they are permitted to use the structure.	Multiple play structure areas allowing all children to have a structure on which to play, whenever they want to play.
Children playing soccer and football on the field, leaving anyone not playing soccer with little green space on which to play.	Children setting their own challenge games, using the rope obstacle course, spinners, hill, boulders, and log bridges.

While River Heights residents may have easy access to the new Nature’s Playground at Assiniboine Park, but most of the playground is officially closed during the winter months. These are the months when children need to be outside, need to be more active and need interesting activities to keep them warm and engaged. The rest of our community offers little in terms of a connection to nature. We want people to think: “let’s walk over to the playground” so that we can move away from the idea of  “let’s get in the car and drive”. We drive to work, drive to the grocery store, drive to the gym and drive to the playground. We need to find ways to reduce the amount we all drive our cars, so our focus on building a playground in our own backyard is to help reduce the amount of driving that families do to get to awesome playgrounds or places to play. It should be as easy as shoes on, close the door and walk/bike/skate to the school.

Our focus is on all types of play – physical, natural, and creative, but we are the environment committee, so our focus is also on the environment. Our process in planning the project to date has been to ensure that any design has little negative impact on the environment, but that it can play a role in helping the environment. The plan includes rain gardens, bio swales, natural prairie grass turf, and native plantings, including trees. Currently we have very little shade, and shade is important as it helps reduce the impact of the drying of the sun on grasses and plantings. Shade is also critical for the children, as it protects them from the direct sun and the strong winter winds.

   

Previously, small projects were undertaken at the school to beautify the grounds or deal with soggy field issue, all done with an unclear long-term vision. We realized that to transform our playground, we needed a professional plan – a Master plan.  Following a sound selection and planning process, we selected the local landscape architect firm Scatliff +Miller + Murray Inc. (SMM). We chose SMM based on their expertise in creating innovative playgrounds such as Assiniboine Park Children’s Garden and École St. Avila. We recently shared the Master plan at a Robert H Smith Open House where students, teachers, and families came to see the vision for the school grounds and to make suggestions. As the Master plan is a large project in itself, we have divided it into 4 phases. We are now at the point where we are ready to start Phase 1.

Our goal is to have our schoolyard be an exciting, fun environment for children of all ages that they can be proud of and take ownership of. We know that active, creative children are happier and more likely to succeed in school. We want to provide them with more opportunities to develop positive relationships with peers as well as interact with a natural environment.