Parks — DG2 Design

Mar 19 2018

A Visit to Shaw Nature Reserve

By: Christina Hughey

I recently visited Shaw Nature Reserve located on the Meramec River, in Gray Summit. Although not everything was green yet, it was still quite beautiful! Shaw has many trails and provides many different hiking/walking opportunities. Shaw has a large prairie with a tepee and curved trails. The wetlands at Shaw are beautiful, here you will see aquatic life as well as a variety of plants. Perhaps the most beautiful thing to see at Shaw would be their woody areas, which include trails that make it easy to navigate. Shaw has hard surface trails but also an abundance of natural surface trails. The natural surface trails allowed me to feel completely submerged in nature. The options of things to do are endless at Shaw, I am already eager to get back there!

Sep 21 2017

Last Hurrah with Gravois Greenway Trail

Attention Gravois Greenway Trail users. There will be a “Last Hurrah” morning on Saturday, September 23rd from 8-11am at the Orlando’s Event and Conference Center trail head. Coffee will be served and questions will be answered with the upcoming construction.

For more information, go to the Great Rivers Greenway page!

Sep 15 2017

Field Trip Friday: Maggie Daley Park, Chicago

By Jordan Wilkinson, PLA

My wife and I recently took a weekend trip to Chicago. We made an effort to do as much and see as much as we could during our 3 day trip. After making the obligatory trip to “The Bean” in Millennium Park, we walked east to visit Maggy Daley Park. Opening in 2014 and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Maggie Daley Park sits at the northeast corner of the larger Grant Park adjacent to Lake Michigan. The roughly 20 acre site was formerly a parking lot and railyard.

A short walk over the BP Pedestrian Bridge from Millennium Park will bring you right into the heart of Maggie Daley Park. The park’s rolling topography and sinuous paths contrast with some of the more traditional gridded elements of Grant park. Major programmatic elements include a rock wall climbing area, which is completely surrounded by the Skating Ribbon. This ice-skating circuit becomes a destination for rollerblades and scooters during the warmer months. A large fieldhouse sits adjacent to the skating ribbon and functions as a community center. Nestled within the blended hills and paths sits a large 3-acre playground complex referred to as the Play Garden. The Play Garden truly is the heart of Maggie Daley Park, and contains a range of play experiences. My favorites include the Slide Crater, which includes a suspension bridge and some incredible spiral slides. The Enchanted Forest (for all ages) is a more natural play area that contains a system of pathways that focus on sensory exploration. Massive upside-down trees form gateways to walk through.

Surrounded by the beautiful skyline of downtown Chicago, it Is hard to not appreciate the beauty of this park. Although the high-rises tower overhead, the densely planted green spaces of the park do a great job of making the hustle and bustle of a busy city center fade away. Clean details help to reinforce the design of the park, and a plant palette of largely native species seems to be flourishing in this environment.

My only gripes about the park? The concrete post light fixtures used throughout seem out of touch with the rest of the park, and dogs are not allowed within the park.

Sources:

Ice Skating Ribbon Reservations Open

All images by Jordan Wilkinson

Jul 05 2017

Smart Stormwater Solutions: A look at Forest Park in St. Louis

By: Jordan Wilkinson, PLA

This week, DG2 attended The Shaw Series Forest Park Stormwater Salon – a continuing education bus tour and discussion that highlighted several recent and ongoing stormwater solutions throughout Forest Park. If you are not familiar with the Shaw Series for Stormwater, these events provide a great opportunity for Landscape Architects, designers, Engineers, contractors, and anyone interested to learn about current practices for stormwater management throughout our area. The series hosts several a handful of events and tours throughout the year.

Our first stop on the tour this week stopped at a site that the Designers and Landscape Architects at DG2 are very familiar with – The Festival & Parking Plaza above the Muny. DG2 worked to complete a design for the parking lot that incorporates a series of bio-retention cells which capture runoff from the parking lot. These cells are heavily planted with a mixture of trees, shrubs, and native perennials. Curb cuts along the parking stalls allow the controlled flow of stormwater to enter these cells, where plant material slows down velocities and filters out pollutants. It was great to see that most species appear to be thriving nearly 2 years after their install. Stormwater from this project area ultimately feeds into the larger Hidden Creek Savanna, and later Deer Lake.

Further ‘downstream’ from the Muny parking lot, lies the beautifully restored Hidden Creek Savanna. This 3 acre site is a great example of some of the habitat restoration the talented professionals at Forest Park Forever are implementing throughout Forest Park. This area was formerly mowed grass and large trees, but now contains more than 100 species of native plants that are controlled by prescribed burning. The Hidden Creek Savanna also acts as a large filter controlling runoff to the small creek that bisects its site.

Curb cut out at the Muny parking lot

Thriving mix of native species

Our next stop on the tour took us by 2 newly retrofitted bio-retention cells that filter the upstream flows into Jefferson Lake. There are a total of 3 bio-retention cells here, and the 2 lower cells have just been retrofitted, with plans to plant them with native plugs this fall. This system of smart stormwater solutions helps to keep Jefferson Lake clean and clear.

Our final drive-by took us by the recently finished curb cuts and bio-retention cells along Government Drive. This stretch of roadway within the park has been improved with new sidewalks, pavement striping, raised crosswalks, and site furnishings among others. The focus of our discussion was on the series of curb cuts that are designed to divert water from the gutters along the road, into bio-retention cells. These cells contain plants, soil matrix, and aggregate sub-base layers to allow stormwater to infiltrate into the ground.

It was inspiring to see all of these great solutions in one place at one time. Forest Park Forever, the nonprofit conservancy for Forest Park, does a great job restoring native habitats throughout the park. They area also crucial to the success of these smart stormwater solutions through their stewardship and maintenance of these systems. If you haven’t been to Forest Park lately, you should go – and take a closer look around you and you might recognize some of these smart stormwater solutions.

Jun 02 2017

Field Trip Friday: NYC High Line

By Stephanie Hornickel, designer with DG2Home

Recently my husband and I took a grand tour of the New England area. Three of those days were spent in NYC doing all the tourist activities and sightseeing, while also enjoying details of gardens, fountains, pedestrian access and all other things landscape designers and architects notice. One of the most impressive uses of pedestrian walkways was the High Line.

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The High Line is a public park that covers the span of what used to be train tracks that was in use starting in 1934 and was designed to go through the center of city blocks carrying goods to and from Manahattan’s industrial district. Trains discontinued their use in 1980, which led to overgrowth and abandonment along the highline for 25 years. The overgrowth of natural grasses and perennials took a big part of the design for what it is today. Current plant species were chosen for their hardiness, sustainability and texture while focusing on native species. The design of the landscape emphasizes year-round interest and bloom, so visitors have a unique experience each season.

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A Friends of the High Line group was founded and by 2004, a group of architects, landscape architects and plant designers were chosen to design the space. After 15 years of advocacy and work, in 2014, the High Line was completed. Not only is the landscape a key element along the park path, but art work is another component. Commissions, exhibits and performances invite artists to creatively engage the history and design of the High Line and urban landscapes.

As a designer walking through the space, it truly is an efficient and well designed pathway park. It functions as an elevated bridge to get to several points in the city as well as providing a quiet and peaceful park space with an abundance of landscape that you don’t see walking through the city.

If you are ever in need of a field trip or case study on how to turn a narrow path into something useful and aesthetic, go visit the High Line in New York City, you won’t be disappointed.

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