Pierce Playground

April 2015

We have recently begun the public design review process for landscape improvements to the Pierce School Playground, and invite you to attend our meetings and provide your thoughts as we develop the design. Our first public meeting was held on March 25, 2015 and we expect that our next meeting will be late April or early May. We will be mailing out meeting notices in advance with details about the date and location, informing the Pierce School community, and posting meeting notices at the playground, on the Town’s website, and with The Brookline Tab.

Pierce School Playground is an important feature in the neighborhood and the Town at large, hosting a variety of field and playground uses and serving a multitude of users—Pierce School students, athletic leagues, Recreation Department programs, and nearby preschools. Improvements are needed in a number of areas. Our overall goals are to maximize safety and accessibility, provide a place of active and passive recreation in which the community can come together, enhance opportunities for people of all ages and abilities, and create a beautiful and natural open space in this dense neighborhood. Through the public design review process, we will be examining the following:

  • Universal access to and within the park including walking paths that connect the park’s features and allow the opportunity for exercise;
  • Renovation of the athletic field;
  • Reworking the grading and drainage to direct runoff appropriately;
  • Assessment of the basketball courts;
  • Evaluation of the irrigation system and other utilities;
  • Redesign for a new playground, including play equipment and resilient safety surfacing;
  • Consideration of site furniture throughout the park; and
  • Treatment of the park’s perimeter to address issues of fencing and volunteer growth, and views in and out of the park.

The design review process consists of presentation and open discussion of alternative solutions to meet our goals for the playground in a series of public meetings over the course of approximately seven months, with establishment by the Park and Recreation Commission of a Design Review Committee for the project. The Design Review Committee has been named and consists of seven members, four Park and Recreation Commissioners and three members coming from the public. The Design Review Committee, with input from the public, will work with our landscape architectural design consultant, Ray Dunetz Landscape Architecture (RDLA), to develop a preliminary design within our budget. Once consensus is reached on a preliminary design, the Design Review Committee will vote its approval and the design will go before the Park and Recreation Commission for its final comment and approval. At that point RDLA will proceed with final development of the design and preparation of the documents for construction bidding.

We welcome you to join us in a creative and productive conversation about how best to improve Pierce School Playground. If you have any questions, please call Annie Blair at (617)730-2616.