Feature image for Retrofitting For Sustainability

Retrofitting For Sustainability

Grass Lawn Park’s renovation improved drainage, recreation, access, and environmental performance while preserving a valued public space.

3 min read

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bruce Dees & Associates, LLC

For more than 30 years, Grass Lawn Park has been the most utilized “year-round” park in Redmond, Wash., providing a variety of recreational opportunities and a unique respite in the middle of an urbanized area. After many years as a valuable regional amenity, the park’s fields and facilities were in need of renovation. Poor drainage affected the park’s winter-use potential, while the community was emerging with changing recreational needs that the old park could no longer satisfy.

In response, the city’s parks department and the landscape-architecture firm of Bruce Dees & Associates developed several goals to improve the park to better sustain itself in the future:

1. Address negative environmental impacts