Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Plan
Saint Paul\'s first parks and recreation plan is a graphically-rich document that rethinks how plans are organized.
2009 Honor Award Winner: Minnesota Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Saint Paul's Park and Recreation Department was faced with aging infrastructure and, frankly, too many facilities. In the past, much park development had been by the "squeaky wheel" method: those that asked, got. This led to inequitable distribution of facilities and a significant number of facilities that were becoming too costly to maintain.
Treeline and Hoisington Koegler Group, Inc. worked with a department-wide committee over a fast-paced four months to create a new vision for Saint Paul's Parks. That vision puts in place a detailed decision-making process that will help park staff determine when (and if) programs are offered and facilities are developed or renovated. The decision-making process is based on research performed within the city and across the nation.
Treeline and Hoisington also established a new way of organizing and communicating the plan. Many plans become mired in hierarchical levels of vague goals, policies, initiatives, actions, and the like. The Saint Paul Plan, instead, sets forth a mission/vision statement for the entire department, embedded within which are the six main goals. Each goal has a series of initiatives, the implementation of which can be assigned and measured. Each goal is communicated with simple, consistent language, an icon, and a color.
To assist the Department in communicating its decisions and publicizing its new facilities, Treeline and Hoisington developed the concept of PARKCARDS. These collector cards are based on a standard template, are graphically rich, and can be distributed digitally or in print. Treeline created three PARKCARDS for immediate use by Parks and Recreatiion, and provided templates for the creation of more.