MKE PLAYS

In the spring, we had a meeting with Joe and Yvonne as well as some major stakeholders and a few interested community members. The opinions voiced at this meeting confirmed that our initial ideas and designs reflected community need. This meeting put a large emphasis on the pavillion as the park’s cornerstone, where people of all ages could gather as a community, even in Wisconsin’s irregular weather.

​

Thus, our main focus shifted to designing this crucial piece of the space. Ideally, the pavillion will have bathrooms, water fountains and storage area, as well as a stage, and a place to gather all year round. Water fountains and bathrooms are important both so that people using the park have access and don’t have to leave the space for access. Additionally, outside programs like the Milwaukee Rec program could use the area which brings new people into the community. We have some initial designs that show a few theoretical designs and layouts. Our current structure design for the pavillion is based on a picture shown at the bottom of this page that had sparked interest at the community meeting.

​

The community meeting also gave insight for different elements for the new park. Apart from the pavilion, the elements people desired most -- the bicycle area, the basketball court -- are likely to be implemented in the park’s final design.

​

RESULTS

​

The most striking experience we had in the course of the project was the opportunity to interact with community members, listening to their input and implementing it into a new park design that better suited the needs of the community. The result of these interactions became the design of the the park layout and the pavilion, a digital rendering and walkthrough of which is pictured on this website. Our hope is that our work will provide inspiration for a better, cleaner, greener new park to be built on the site at 29th and Melvina.