next >>
The Grass Blades

Ballard Commons Park

(Photo by Kadie Bell.)

Facts

Design Commission's Influence
The Design Commission believed the development of the Ballard Park provided the City an opportunity to develop open space that would complement Ballard's redeveloping civic core.

The Design Commission made several recommendations to the Department of Parks and Recreation and its design team:

Overall Concept and Direction

• retain the clear articulation of design principles
• use the grittiness of the neighborhood and its association with craftsmanship to inspire the design of the park, rather than relying on the maritime or Scandinavian clichés of Ballard
• develop multi-generational facilities
• continue to integrate the skate park element into the park and treat it as an opportunity not a crime
• use the site conditions and topography as an opportunity
• focus on simplicity in the design
• continue resistance to over-programming the site
• make the ecological goals of the project explicit
• regrets the loss of the full skate element and its replacement with a smaller facility and how the skate element will interact with other uses in the park; expresses concern that the skate park has been resolved politically but not in its design
• more fully explore the possibilities of form, and the complexity of form
• look further at the centrifugal aspects of the park and find ways to balance these with more outward facing elements
• continue to facilitate an interactive process with the community
• keep the "big move" of the park as well as the layering
• give more thought to the function of the park on non-festival days

Plaza. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)

Urban Design and Neighborhood Fit

• reexamine the conceptual park diagram in the master plan and see how all 3 current concepts relate to the library site diagonally across the street
• continue to be good neighbors with the adjacent property development
• explore the urban design opportunities of the birch grove

Pedestrian path through birch grove. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)

Site Planning

• make the framing elements simpler and bolder
• develop places for skate spectators
• prefers the third scheme and the many levels that are used to create dynamic spaces for different activities
• resolve the disconnect between the elegance of the plaza and water feature and the energy of the skate bowl
• explore greater flexibility at the SE corner of the site and soften the NE corner of the site
• look at the scale of the water feature and its location within the plaza and proximity to the street
• better integrate the shape of the skate bowl with the sculptural shells that are used as art elements in the project
• better tie the bowl’s geography to the sweeping curves that organize the plan
• keep the integration of softscapes
• increase the amount of paved area; scale this area to the size and kinds of festivals that will be held in the park
• provide direction for the amount of porous and non-porous surfaces on the site

Spectators watch the skate bowl. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)

Design Refinements

• reduce the amount of grass used in the park design and focus instead on a more strategic use of lawn; reexamine whether it should be used under the birch trees
• retain the restrooms
• make the bench design more elegant and functional
• choose carefully the big tree, its location within the space, and its proximity to the skate bowl
• retain the rain drum features and the integration of art into the children’s play elements
• reconsider the location of the children’s area for the purposes of child development and parental observation
• incorporate site integrated art into the design of the park as well as signature art pieces

Children play with the sculpture. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)