Business Member Highlight: HKGi

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Designing and Building an Award-Winning Nature Play Area for Grams Regional Park Zimmerman, Sherburne County, Minnesota
Grams Regional Park in Zimmerman, part of Sherburne County’s parks and recreation system, is home to a new nature play area that offers kids of all abilities the chance to “burrow” underground, climb a timber tower, or set off on an adventure to build a fort.

The Design Process
In 2019, when Sherburne County Parks and Public Works staff realized that the park’s traditional playground was nearing the end of its useful life, they retained Minnesota-based landscape architecture firm HKGi to plan for a new play area. HKGi worked with County staff to facilitate a visioning process to identify desired features for a new nature-themed playscape. HKGi collected input from over 200 stakeholders, whose comments were critical in shaping a concept plan that emphasized the need to welcome children of mixed ages and abilities. Using this feedback, HKGi created a design concept featuring a mixture of custom-designed and factory-manufactured play elements that would make nature-based play accessible and exciting for ALL children, including those with mobility limitations and sensory-processing disorders.

Leveraging this accessible play design concept, HKGi and County staff prepared a successful MnDNR Outdoor Recreation grant application and launched the next phase of the design process, which again offered stakeholders the chance to have a voice in identifying program elements for the new play area. Engagement included an on-site activity that gave families a chance to visit the park, build forts, and nest inside a willow hut prototype!

The Design Details
Final designs organized the play area into five distinct zones:

• An Active Nature Playground featuring timber play equipment, a 16-foot-long “burrow” tunnel that accommodates wheelchairs and bikes, a basket swing and wobble boards, and two local-artist-woven willow huts.
• A Kinesthetic Loop Trail traversing restored prairie and woodland and featuring an ADA-accessible travel lane; a plank path and banked turn and rollers; and 6-10 foot tall climbing stilts constructed from salvaged local white oak and custom stenciled to look like birch trees.
• A Free-form Nature Play Area featuring a wheelchair-accessible craft table and “building materials” such as branches, tree cookies, and pinecones set beneath a majestic basswood tree.
• An Open Picnic Area lined with native serviceberry trees offering views of the rolling prairie complements a new picnic shelter at the opposite end of the play area.
• A Contemplative Gathering Space at the terminus of the new Storywalk Trail, which winds its way from the new parking lot through the play areas and picnic grounds to a quiet circle of stones beneath a cluster of oaks.

Cost Saving Design Strategies
HKGi worked with County staff to determine what could be custom-built “in-house” to realize cost savings and leverage the skills of public works and parks staff. Custom-designing some of the play elements also allowed the use of locally-harvested and sourced materials, creating a closer tie between the play area and the park’s landscape. HKGi also bid the project in two packages to streamline procurement of the mixture of factory-made play equipment and custom-designed elements. These strategies, plus diligent project management and construction administration by both Sherburne County and HKGi staff, enabled these improvements to be built within a relatively tight budget. The result is a uniquely innovative nature play area that offers opportunities for play and interaction with the natural world for children of all abilities.