October 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 69

Choosing materials that will hold up
to site conditions is another long-term
design strategy with maintenance in
mind. The department considers the
history of graffiti in a neighborhood
when choosing between wood and
metal benches for parks, for example.
Park usage is another consideration. Benjamin Franklin Parkway is
a beautiful stretch of parkland running from city hall to the art museum
that provides a huge space for events
ranging from charity walks to marathons to concerts to Fourth of July
celebrations. Major landscape projects have reconfigured the area, especially around the Swan Fountain and
Logan Circle. According to Palmer,
even the most durable landscapes and
hardscapes would have difficulty withstanding such abuse, but everything is
designed to be easily restorable.
Philadelphia's changing climate is
even taken into consideration. With
increasingly hotter summer weather,
more and more Philadelphia parks
include irrigation systems. One senior park staff member serves as the
liaison for all irrigation systems in the
parks and reviews all of the irrigation
plans. The parks department now has
a system-wide contractor to maintain
all irrigation systems, and they review
design plans as well. Palmer notes this
intense coordination can help avoid
problems like sprinkler heads being
placed too close to sidewalks and potentially being hit by snowplow blades.
" In the RFP process...a lot of questions are about maintenance and their
familiarity and comfort with working
with operations staff during the design
process, " Focht says. " We've been doing it this way for so many years now
that it's really second nature to almost
all the consultants we work with. "
One important partner in long-term
maintenance for high visibility down-

town parks is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Founded in 1827,
PHS began working on improving
Philadelphia parks in the late 1980s. For
downtown parks, the society has raised
money and hired landscape architects
to design the parks. Once the design is
complete, PHS takes on management
in concert with the parks department by
hiring a project manager to oversee the
landscape contractor hired by the parks
department. The group also provides
funds to provide more modest design
improvements at neighborhood parks.
Nancy O'Donnell, director of PHS
public landscapes, says their ongoing role
in park landscape maintenance brings
in-depth background knowledge to new
design projects as well as the long-term
maintenance of existing landscapes.
" We understand at a pretty deep level what the idea behind the design was
initially, " O'Donnell says. " The people
part of the landscapes is really critical
- that you have people who are knowledgeable about landscapes and who get
to know these landscapes really well. "
For example, she describes how at
the azalea garden, landscape architects
are brought back occasionally to walk
through the garden, looking at how the
shifting of sunny to shady spots may
affect different perennials. Or at the
Swan Fountain in Logan Square, strong
" desire lines " through plant beds were
solved by moving a few things around.
" There's this constant sort of evolution of the details, but we want to really
keep the big picture very coherent, " she
says. " You have to tweak things over
time and make some common sense
and sometimes thoughtful decisions. "
Above all, however, is the importance of long-term project collaboration between maintenance staff and
the design team right from the start.
" They're absolutely critical - I
think we've been much more suc-

cessful in the parks we've done in the
past ten years because we've brought
maintenance in up front and have engaged them early on with our project
team, " Focht says. " I really appreciate the fact that all the landscape
architects who work for us actually
welcome that input and enjoy that interaction, and they learn from it too. "
" Openness and flexibility, a willingness to communicate, learn and educate each other - these are truly simple
ways to advance these projects, " Palmer
notes. " You can pick up the phone...
and share information to educate each
other. Ultimately it becomes a much
smoother project. Each project we work
on becomes easier and easier because
we start thinking like each other. "
Elizabeth Beard is the Managing Editor of
Parks & Recreation (ebeard@nrpa.org).

W W W. N R PA . O R G | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 3 |

Parks & Recreation

October 2013 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2013 - Parks & Recreation