Put your paws together for a new potential dog park destination—Bark Park. When new housing developments began to materialize and developers granted a piece of land to Cottage Grove, the village recruited a landscape architect and two UW landscape architecture majors to design an outside space for the growing community to gather.
James Steiner, a senior lecturer in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, is collaborating with senior design fellow Keegan Ripley and sophomore Henry Hinchsliff to create a dog park destination for the Village of Cottage Grove. UniverCity Alliance, an on-campus organization that is part of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, encourages hands-on experience for students by connecting departments, including those in the College of Letters & Science, with community outreach projects like this one.
Cottage Grove’s municipal offices tasked these three team members with creating a functional dog park out of a non-geometric, hilly piece of land. The challenging prospect excites them.
“Hands-on experience is the best way to learn with design,” says Steiner. “You can talk about theory and can do academic projects, but you really have to get out into the world and find out how this process works.”
From scouting the site to designing layout concepts, both students gained important experience connecting course concepts to real-world projects.
“Having hands-on experience brings you back to reality to find a common ground of pushing innovation while staying realistic,” says Ripley. “You have limitations so you have to work with them not against them.”
When first seeing the site, one obstacle was immediately obvious—a steep hill. Bulldozing an entire hill would not be feasible. In classes, keeping a budget or managing the length of a project may not be the students first thought. But working with professionals allows the students to find realistic solutions to problems. They worked on transforming potential weaknesses into must-see, ‘instagrammable’ moments.
Everyone deserves to experience the picture-worthy view, but as all Bascom Hill walkers know, hills can be physically taxing. Incorporating features in the landing area brings the ultimate dog park adventure without walking up the hill.
Although a final design hasn’t been chosen, several features are guaranteed to be present in the park. From a pavilion for gatherings and an abundance of shade trees for comfort during all seasons to large and small dog areas with graphic signs or sculptures, there will be something for everyone to enjoy once a final design has been approved and the park is completed.
The design team’s goal of everyone accessing the space and experiencing features of the park remained at the forefront of their thoughts while designing layout concepts.
“As a landscape architect, we always shoot for our designs to be accessible and try to make it so everyone can use this site,” says Ripley.
One of the two design concepts incorporates switchback pathways which zig-zag up the hill. The second design provides choices for using steps to access the hill or to take shorter, more level walks within the park that would be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible. Both designs utilize the hill as a feature while making as much of the park as accessible as possible.
Each unique site comes with its own set of opportunities and constraints.
“The land informs you of what it wants,” says Steiner. “It’s a puzzle. You take the puzzle pieces and look at the ways they could come together.”
While working to put the pieces together, the team is working closely with the village. From visiting the site and meeting with Cottage Grove representatives to presenting concept designs at public meetings, the community will be providing feedback once the final conceptual designs are completed.
“A dog park fills a void that the Village currently has. In the coming years, I think this unique space will allow for dog owners to come together and enjoy a new amenity in Cottage Grove,” says Sean Brusegar, the Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry for the village.
According to the three team members, that's the goal of any green space—to bring people together in nature and create happy moments.
“I want to look back when I retire and be able to bring my kids, family and friends to spaces I designed 50 years ago and show them this is my legacy,” says Ripley. “This is how we've impacted the community by bringing them outdoors and into nature.”
