Interesting shapes, forms and spaces will compose the new Children’s Museum on Island Ave.

There will be a special place in Downtown San Diego for art, very special because it is for our children.

The San Diego Children’s Museum – The Muse – is an institution that celebrates the role of arts and exploration in the development of children. Both in its museum building and in its park, the Muse will focus on programs that provide ever changing environments created by renowned artists. The building and the park serve as studio spaces – offering simple, voluminous rooms in which the children can dance, paint, sculpt, perform, laugh and play.

The museum’s commitment to on-going artists in residence and artists as teachers exposes the children to the widest range of creativity. Adult artists are commissioned to create sculpture for play, surfaces to paint on, and stages for dance and theater that are changed at regular intervals. Depending on the specifics of the event these environments are either indoors or outdoors. The outdoor pieces, while built for the museum programs, are meant for the use and enjoyment of the public at large.

It is around this program that the park design takes its cues to function as a backdrop to the daily magic made by the children themselves.

Design Principles

The park is designed around five guiding principles:

A place for children, but not childish…
The use of primary colors and simple forms is a sad stereotype for children’s spaces. The park is designed to be a beautiful place with areas to run and climb over – to explore a bit of danger, to observe the passing shadows from trees and shade structures.

A park for art – and art for play...
Use the museum’s art program to fill the park with unique new pieces of art that change with the season or on a whim. Design the park in a way that serves as a functional backdrop for the exploration and enjoyment of the art program (lawn for running, sitting, falling - shade structures to protect the children from the sun - resilient surfaces to allow for climbing and falling off of art objects – hard surfaces for bouncing balls or chalk painting)

Celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade...
The park needs to be a part of the King Promenade. The design will incorporate the existing patterns and materials as well as continue the King Promenade’s own art program honoring the life of Dr. King. It is anticipated that there will be two components to the King Promenade art program at this location. The park designers are working with Roberto Salas to relocate his sculpture, ‘Dream,’ to a more honorific setting. Additional granite tablets with quotations from Dr. King will be installed along the main path.

Island Avenue – a street and a plaza...
Island Avenue has very low traffic volumes and is being designed as a space for people more than for cars. The street will be paved in a bold pattern and the parking spaces will be interrupted with trees. Speed bumps will be placed to further slow traffic to accommodate the children crossing the street. Island Avenue will be closed at certain approved times to allow for expanded events to take place. For example, the Fern Street Circus has an on-going relationship with the museum and will perform there on a regular basis. These events will be open to the public, free of charge.

The Museum in a Park...
The park will truly provide a setting to extend the museum activities into the outdoor, street life of San Diego.

The Parts Of The Park

Starting with the main path along the King Promenade there will be rows of pear trees and bands of various shrubs and groundcovers laid out parallel to the path. Walkways cutting through the planting bands provide access to the lower trellis area where benches and seatwalls offer seating for parents and children to watch the activity in the play areas. A band of clay can be moistened and used to make objects and impressions.

The existing transformers are screened with climbing vines. The west facing side of the transformer screen is a concrete wall to allow ball games and mural paintings.

Aligned with the transformers are a series of 40’ by 40’ shaded play spaces. The first space off of Front Street is a climbing and gymnastics room. A sloping ramp surface winds around the perimeter of the space allowing for universal accessibility and giving the children a changing height perspective to watch the climbing and activities inside the room. The surface is covered with resilient rubber flooring. The ramping network serves as a platform for “theater in the round” performances.

West of the transformers are two play surfaces – one with rubber flooring to allow for climbing and falling activities and another paved for ball sports and chalk paintings, etc.

The three play areas are covered for shade protection with ribbons of gray and yellow industrial grating materials that will create interesting light/shade patterns on the surfaces below.

The largest space is an open flat lawn for maximum play flexibility. Along Front Street shrub plantings serve to block the children from running into the busy street. A curved wall surrounds the “Reading Tree” set in a sloped lawn that allows groups of children to gather for story telling.

Along the park lawn is a generous sidewalk with another low wall for both seating and protection from running into the street. Island Avenue contains parking and drive aisles with multiple planting fingers for trees. The CCDC Island Avenue master plan specifies Carrotwoods as the street tree and is planted in a double row on the south side with taller Date Palms flanking the street. The street surface is covered with concrete pavers in a bold pattern incorporating traffic calming speed bumps. The Front Street edge is planted with the majestic Canary Island Date Palm and paved to match the existing piano key pattern to provide a symmetrical design for the Front and First couplet.

The park is lit with fixtures to match those that exist along the King Promenade. In addition the shade structures and trellis areas will have downlights to provide a high level of illumination. The Front Street play room will be artfully lit to function as an interesting beacon. Island Avenue will have the CCDC enhanced acorn light fixture with traffic intersection illumination as required.

Martin Poirier is a principal of Spurlock Poirier, landscape architect of the Children’s Museum Park at Front Street and Island Avenue.