Parks & Recreation

A great park gets used for decades — which means it has to be planned that way. DLZ provides a wide range of park design and planning services, typically led by our landscape architecture team, creating community-focused, context-sensitive, and aesthetically pleasing spaces for recreation. Because we routinely take these projects from concept through construction, we’re able to balance creativity, functionality, client vision, and constructability in every park project.

We focus on understanding the existing site, desired programming, maintenance capabilities, and funding, so the solution we deliver incorporates the amenities each client needs in a way that’s sustainable over the long term. Our strong design capabilities combined with solid engineering expertise help create park spaces that communities enjoy for generations.

Featured Capabilities

Park Site Master Planning

DLZ develops high-level master plans for individual park sites, working through programming, community outreach, preliminary concepts, budget, and phasing to build a clear framework for immediate or long-term improvements. The resulting plan gives park boards and municipalities a shared reference point for prioritizing projects and pursuing funding, year after year.

Design & Construction Documents

We carry park improvements from concept through bid-ready construction documents, including site layout plans, grading and drainage plans, site utilities, landscape planting plans, and architectural or MEP plans where park structures require them. Having these disciplines in-house lets us coordinate site and structure design together, keeping the finished park cohesive rather than assembled from disconnected pieces.

Active Recreation

DLZ designs a wide range of active recreation amenities, including playgrounds, spray pads, sport courts and fields, and community centers. We design these amenities with an eye toward durability and ease of maintenance, so parks departments can keep them in good condition on realistic operating budgets.

Passive Recreation

We design pavilions and picnic areas, gathering spaces, memorials, fishing piers and boat ramps, trails, overlooks, and amphitheaters that give visitors quieter ways to enjoy a park. These spaces are sited to take advantage of a park’s natural features — water, topography, mature tree cover — rather than working against them.

Public Outreach

Public input shapes park design at nearly every phase. DLZ facilitates outreach processes that gather meaningful input and build consensus around a park’s needs, programming, and design. We present concepts in accessible formats that let residents of all ages weigh in, helping build the community buy-in that carries a project through funding and construction.

Five-Year Park Master Plans

DLZ develops five-year strategic plans that guide the development, maintenance, and operation of a community’s parks and recreation system, evaluating current assets, incorporating public input, and prioritizing projects — often a requirement for state and federal grant eligibility. These system-wide plans give park boards a defensible, data-backed rationale for capital requests and help ensure improvements are distributed equitably across a community.

Related Work

All Work

City Center Monon Greenway

Carmel

, Indiana

Founders Square Park

Portage

, Indiana

Kilbourne Run Sports Park

Columbus

, Ohio

Pulaski Park Improvements

Hammond

, Indiana

Related Capabilities

Architecture
Site/Civil Engineering
Environmental

Jonathan

Mooney, PLA, LEED AP

Project Manager

Indiana

Ben

Baker, PLA, ASLA, LEED AP

Project Manager

Michigan

Jeff

Hirsch, PLA, LEED AP

Department Manager

Indiana

Jason

Vetne, AIA, LEED AP

Principal Architect

Michigan

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