by Kirby Lindsay, posted 25 January 2012
On Thursday, February 2nd, from 6p – 8p, the neighbors of B.F. Day Elementary School, plus parents, students and staff, are invited (and urged) to attend a second community workshop for envisioning improvements to our playground.
The B.F. Day Playground Improvement Steering Committee, consisting of concerned parents, staff and residential/business neighbors, have led this effort to update the school’s grounds – with opportunities for sharing ideas about what improvements we each want to see. The Feb 2nd workshop will also include preliminary concept plans, provided by the landscape architecture firm of Site Workshop and Project Manager Vinita Sidhu, that they developed from input given at the first community workshop on November 30th, 2011.
Parents In The Process
Site Workshop team members facilitate the workshops, to help the public develop a design that meets the needs of our community. The Steering Committee chose this firm through an RFQ (Request For Qualifications) process that drew roughly a dozen applications. The Committee chose Site Workshop based on their qualifications and enthusiastic attitude toward working with the school, and the kids. An unexpected benefit came with Sidhu being chosen as project manager. The licensed landscape architect also lives in Upper Fremont, and has a daughter that will attend B.F. Day in a couple of years.
Of course, Sidhu explained, “all of us on the design team have kids too, and that brings a certain amount of understanding.” They understand the needs of the kids, and the desires of the parents. Most especially, they understand they’ll need to listen carefully to meet the dreams of all.
To gather input, the Site Workshop design team also attended an all-school B.F. Day assembly, and gave the kids an exercise to take home to complete with their parents. They have stakeholder meetings planned – including ones with the Fremont Neighborhood Council, the Seattle Department of Transportation, and the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation who maintain a property adjacent to the school.
The primary stakeholder, the Seattle School District, has final say on whether any design will move forward. “They will review everything we do. They can veto a lot of things,” Sidhu explained. Here Site Workshop can be particularly helpful, since they’ve presented a design to the District before. “We know what we need to include in the final plan,” Sidhu explained, to get approval from the School District.
Professionals For the Job
Everyone giving input has been encouraged to dream big. “How can we make the grounds more effective for you?” Sidhu asked. Site Workshop offered a list, at the first workshop, of playground elements to consider. A playground can incorporate many activities and features including music/theater/dance, gatherings, learning, environmental (gardening), play, rest, health, fitness, entries/boundaries/edges, circulation, art, nature, science, etc.
Site Workshop expects to hear ideas on all these elements, and “after taking in from these groups,” Sidhu explained, the architects will prepare drawings. Some projects start with a design, but “on a public project like this,” Sidhu explained, “the public process is part of the design.” The dreams, suggestions and ideas will be gathered together, and then translated into concrete, grass, and/or structural improvements. As Sidhu explained, “We will take the ideas and make them reality.”
Site Workshop has experienced designing for a wide variety of settings, including civic spaces, parks, and playgrounds. As a project manager, Sidhu has worked on many projects including ones at the University of Washington Medical Center, Three Cedars Waldorf School in Bellevue, Everett Community College, and Liberty High School in Issaquah.
A Project Of Possibilities
“I like renovations. I like the idea of this great old building,” Sidhu mused about B.F. Day, and designing grounds that reflect and enhance the greatness and warmth of the 100-year-old school structure. A new playground design can incorporate more cost-effective measures, and sustainable, modern elements. “We hope that teachers would have the ability to use the landscape as part of the curriculum,” Sidhu allowed, “but we don’t want to build something that doesn’t get used.”
A native plant garden would enhance the grounds, but only if parents and members of the community want it enough to help maintain it. The new design will contain elements that the school has the resources to manage, and maintain, today and in the future. Yet, it can contain elements used by the school and the surrounding community – perhaps an outdoor seating area for assemblies, concerts and/or movies? Also, Sidhu admitted, “I’d really like to see some integrated art work.”
“This project could be a really good opportunity,” Sidhu observed, for the community and the school. This is the time to get all our big dreams out onto paper. Another workshop will likely take place, probably in March, but now is the best time to get ideas into the process, and let them take root.
“If you don’t get out there, when you have a chance to say,” Sidhu stated, the loss is yours – and all of ours. To make a playground that works for the whole community – the whole community must weigh in. Please participate, on Thursday, February 2nd, from 6p – 8p in the B.F. Day Elementary School Library. Now is the time to help make our playground the very best it can be!
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©2012 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.