Above Image: Rendering of the The Arc of Lane County’s Comcast Amphitheater
Originally Featured in The Eugene Register-Guard on November 26th, 2021
By: Louis Krauss
Project: Playground with accessibility to those with disabilities.
Location: 4181 E St., Springfield, west behind The Arc of Lane County building
Description: The Arc of Lane County is building the Arc Park on the property it purchased directly behind its Springfield offices. The park will provide a play space fully accessible to children with disabilities and will be open for free to the public. Angela Phinney, The Arc’s assistant executive director, said once completed, this will be Oregon’s first fully accessible park. “There are some parks that have some nice accessibility features, but everything about this park has been planned with full inclusivity in mind,” Phinney said at the construction site Tuesday. “It’s really meant for everybody to learn together and play together.” Phinney said the idea for a playground started six years ago, when a small group of parents of kids with disabilities came to her and said they needed a park safer than what’s available. “One of the problems is most parks are built by a major roadway and another great park that we have is right next to the river,” Phinney said. “If you have a child with autism, who tends to run and doesn’t understand danger, that’s a real problem.”
Some of the highlights of the park are:
- an amphitheater with a stage designed to look like a treehouse — complete with a large ramp leading up to its second floor, a merry-go-round that wheelchairs can enter
- walls with rock casts of fossils
- wildlife and plants kids can touch such as salmon, ferns and lizards.
Architects also are taking vision impairments into consideration by building with different textures and color variations to help navigate the park. John Schmidt, the landscape architect for the project, said the main design came from a sketch that kids drew, which included a figure-eight path design with play areas within it. The full park is expected to cost $2.5 million, Phinney said. So far, sponsor groups have helped fund costs of $750,000 for the northern half of the park that includes the amphitheater and some play areas. The park also is going to be used to hold events such as art in the park, science activities and yoga, Phinney said.
Tuesday marked the beginning of construction on the amphitheater that was funded by Comcast, which has given more than $150,000 to the project. “We are so excited to be a part of this amazing project that we feel can really reset the bar on what inclusive play can look like and bring the community together,” said Rebecca Brown, Comcast’s senior director of community impact in Oregon.
Both Comcast and Lane Forest Products are major sponsors of the project, Phinney said. The first of half of the park is expected to be open to the public in spring 2022, while the other half, which includes more playground equipment, will likely take another year, Phinney said. The Arc still needs to raise money for the second half of construction, she added. More details of the park and how to donate are available online at arclane.org/arcpark/.
Contractor: Pasquarelli Construction
Source: Arc of Lane County and project managers