Lyseth Playground Renovation

The Lyseth School Playground is a small community playground in the North Deering neighborhood. This play space anchors Lyseth Elementary School's outdoor play area for approximately 500 students, and is adjacent to the Lyman Moore and Lyseth school multipurpose fields as well as the Pine Grove Park Trail and Bramblewood drive neighborhood. The space is a blend of active play equipment, asphalted recreation space, trail and pathways, and wood lot edges for natural building and fairy house construction.

Current playground conditions are impacted by drainage issues, uncontained safety chips, aging play elements, and a lack of boundaries between the playground entrance and parking area. The existing play elements include the "spider" net climber, a play structure with multiple slides, wooden bridge, overhead bars, and zip line features. A three bay swing set, with a 2 swing bay for toddlers and two bays of belt swings. A bicycle parking rack, homemade stage, and handmade ship are also part of the existing play elements. Benches and a picnic table are on site as well.

Improvement priorities will focus on resolving existing drainage issues, providing additional swing elements, introducing new vertical and traverse climbing opportunities, creating an internal area for natural play, and adding flexible space for outdoor classrooms or open ended play amongst plantings and boulders. A new double loop play pathway, and play borders will also be prioritized. These and other elements will be constructed based on available funding.

The project takes community, school, and Parks and Recreational staff input into a prioritized design to improve site conditions and equipment in the space. The conceptual site plan also includes a future vision for a younger children's play area, although available funding will likely preclude construction of this space. Construction is anticipated for summer of 2022 during the school's summer break. A construction budget of just over $230,000 is available for drainage, pathway, and play element improvements and any additional technical support.