Ten Eyck Panorama Architects has restored a “leisure coronary heart” to a downtown park in Austin, Texas with vernacular buildings, play areas and a revitalized ecosystem.
In 2014, town of Austin adopted a imaginative and prescient plan for the long run use and care of the 84-acre Pease Park, the oldest public park within the Texan capital, that targeted on constructed parts, historic options and cultural sources.
Ten Eyck Panorama Architects collaborated with Clayton Korte and Mell Lawrence Architects to revitalise the park’s southernmost portion – generally known as Kingsbury Commons – into a spot for folks to play and have a good time the park’s historical past.
“The problem was to weave a heavy program of play parts, trails and different park amenities into the topography with out overwhelming the native setting in a constricted house,” mentioned major advisor Christine Ten Eyck.
“We hope Kingsbury Commons units an ordinary for Austin parks by integrating enjoyable and play inside nature.”
Accomplished in 2021, the renovated Kingsbury Commons serves as a brand new, accessible “entrance door” for the park, inviting guests in by means of historic stone archways and mature dwell oak timber.
The group eliminated phone poles, an previous splash pad and a restroom to clear an open actions garden with sweeping views of the park and entry to the adjoining Shoal Creek.
“The brand new park design weaves collectively the mature current vegetation with a sturdy program of amenities and facilities comprising occasion rental areas, new restrooms and storage amenities, a treetop remark pod, pure playgrounds, a basketball court docket, and an interactive water function that remembers the karst limestone aquifers discovered within the Texas Hill Nation,” the group mentioned.
The embedded leisure facilities encourage guests – each younger and grown – to work together with nature and central Texas geology.
Youngsters can climb by means of the tree cowl in an all-abilities playground with climbing constructions, swings, and pure wooden steadiness parts; whereas adults can train or play bocce in a riparian restoration zone.
The group additionally labored to revive a Nineteen Twenties Tudor cottage that sits on a bluff overlooking the park.
The derelict construction was beforehand used as restrooms and storage, however the group remodeled it right into a single-room occasion venue with a brand new vaulted roof construction and huge northern window that complement the prevailing wooden shake roof materials and cleaned exterior.
The cottage design was awarded the Preservation Austin Advantage Award for rehabilitation in 2021.
Along with the preservation work, the group tucked a set of recent assist buildings towards the park’s western hillside.
“That includes metal mesh partitions and a shade palette impressed by the panorama, the buildings recede into the background,” the group mentioned.
The restrooms are composed of vernacular dogtrot constructions with vanities within the breezeway, and a constructing opens to a connecting courtyard with terraced limestone seating that creates a small amphitheatre beneath the cedar elms.
“Architectural parts have been deliberately designed to focus on moderately than overshadow the pure setting,” the group mentioned.
Generally known as Treescape, a two-level, 40-foot (12-metre) metal orb creates a treehouse remark pod with a cargo web hammock and central oculus. The decrease stage connects to decomposed granite trails, whereas the higher stage is accessed by an ADA-accessible bridge on the hillside.
Supplies for each the architectural and panorama parts have been chosen for sturdiness through the space’s main flood occasions.
A low ribbon-like limestone wall winds by means of the park mitigating the elevation modifications. At varied factors in its path, it turns into stepped seating and finally highlights a restored pure spring that feeds native crops.
The challenge additionally included a rehabilitation of the prevailing tree cover consisting of hundred-year-old oaks and elms, ecological restoration of upland and riparian zones, removing of invasive species and native soil restoration.
Kingsbury Commons holds a USGBC SITES Gold certification and acquired a Texas ALSA Honor Award in 2022.
Close by, Clayton Korte – previously generally known as Clayton & Little – embedded a wine cave right into a Texas hillside.
The images is by Casey Dunn until in any other case acknowledged.
Mission credit:
Panorama architect /prime advisor: Ten Eyck Panorama Architects (Christine E. Ten Eyck, Stephanie Saulmon, Tim Campbell, Jia Li)
Architect: Clayton Korte (Nathan Quiring, Joseph Boyle, Hanna Leheup)
Treescape: Mell Lawrence Architects
Civil engineer: Garza EMC
MEP engineer: Jerry Garza & Associates
Structural engineer: Architectural Engineers Collaborative
Lighting designer: Studio Lumina
Graphics and wayfinding: Web page/Dyal
Water function: GPSI
Common contractor: Harvey-Cleary Builders
Proprietor / consumer: Pease Park Conservancy, Metropolis of Austin Parks and Recreation Division
