Designing Small Parks

Designing Small Parks: A Manual for Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns provides guidelines for building better parks by integrating design criteria with current social and natural science research. Small parks are too often relegated to being the step-child of municipal and metropolitan open space systems because of assumptions that their small size and isolation limits their recreational capacity and makes them ecologically less valuable than large city and county parks. This manual is arranged around twelve topics that represent key questions, contradictions, or tensions in the design of small parks. Topics cover fundamental issues for urban parks, natural systems, and human aspects. Also included are useful case studies with alternative design solutions using three different approaches for integrating research findings into small urban park design.

Acknowledgments vii

An Introduction to Small Parks 1

Overview of Park Planning and Design Concerns 10

1: Size, Shape, and Number 13

2: Connections and Edges 23

3: Appearance and Other Sensory Issues 33

4: Naturalness 42

5: Water 48

6: Plants 54

7:Wildlife 60

8: Climate and Air 67

9: Activities and Groups 73

10: Safety 83

1 1 : Management 88

12: Public Involvement 95

SUMMARY Lessons About Small Parks 100

Design Examples 102

EXAMPLE 1 : Taking Advantage of Stormwater Management in a New Suburban Area 104

EXAMPLE 2 : Rehabilitating a Park for Community Revitalization 111

EXAMPLE 3 : Renovating a Suburban Park for Water Quality and Active Recreation 116

EXAMPLE 4 : Redefining the New Urban Town Square 123

EXAMPLE 5: Reusing a Vacant Lot in the Center City 128

Design Development Guidelines 134

Design Development Issues in Brief 148

Key Words 175

References 179

Index 193

ANN FORSYTH, PhD, MPIA, is Dayton Hudson Chair of Urban Design and Director of the Metropolitan Design Center at the University of Minnesota. Her publications include Constructing Suburbs: Competing Voices in a Debate Over Urban Growth and Reforming Suburbia: The Planned Communities of Irvine, Columbia, and The Woodlands.

LAURA R. MUSACCHIO, PhD, ASLA, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and is on the research faculty in the Metropolitan Design Center at the University of Minnesota. She is also a research scientist in urban ecology with the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project.

Social and ecological guidelines for designing and maintaining small parks

Designing Small Parks: A Manual for Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns draws on a wide range of knowledge to provide a one-stop reference to building better parks.

Integrating design criteria with current social and natural science research, Designing Small Parks presents landscape architects, park designers, park departments, planners, scientists, and civic groups with a broad palette of design options. Beginning with an overview of key issues and terms, this accessible manual is arranged around twelve topics that represent key questions, contradictions, and tensions in the design of small parks.

Designing Small Parks features:

• Concise guidelines providing immediate access to critical information
• Fundamental material on size, edges, appearance, and naturalness
• Ecological and human environment coverage of water, plants, wildlife, and air and climate
• Succinct summaries of issues surrounding clients and other involved parties
• Over 100 drawings and photographs illustrating design details
• Up-to-date scientific research
• Five conceptual design examples that offer hands-on applications of covered material