The Background
Peralta Hacienda Historical Park in Oakland, California, wanted to individualize their playground with a “Native Bay Area” theme, to capture the spirit of what Northern California looked like 250 years ago and to pay tribute to the area's heritage. Ross Recreation and Landscape Structures partnered together with the Park to make this customized bear & tree theme come to life in the playground.

The Design Process
Park Designer Gordon Chun developed scalable clay models and Tom Wetter at Landscape Structures was able to scale them to a larger size to be built out of reinforced concrete. Throughout the design, the teams sent digital images to relay the progress of the structures and to get approvals from the city, designer, and architect at each stage of the manufacturing process.

The Challenges
Two very different design challenges were faced in this project. The first was in designing bear faces that would look serious but not scary to children. The second was in constructing these structures for children to climb on. Modifications were also made to the tree stump to ensure that the horizontal ladder would meet ASTM standards.

The Result
The Peralta Hacienda Park celebrated its grand opening on October 15 where it unveiled for the first time to the public this new play area.

When it comes to customization, the sky is the limit and Ross Recreation looks forward to working with you, to individualize your neighborhood park.

Learn more about custom capabilities. (click for details)