Landscape Architecture for Landscape Architects › Forums › SUSTAINABILITY & DESIGN › How to repurpose a shuffleboard court
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Tanya Olson.
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May 3, 2010 at 3:04 pm #169814
Pat S. Rosend
ParticipantLooking for creative ideas because I am stumped. We have some old underutilized shuffelboard courts and are trying to think how we could repurpose a paved area that small. Any thoughts you might have would be great.
One thought is to timber around and build a depth to add mateiral to convert to a Bocce ball court. Not sure how much use it would get.
The other is to just remove it. Any other ideas out there?
May 3, 2010 at 5:12 pm #169834Tanya Olson
Participant20′ long large group dining tables? Potted plants, adirondack chairs and portable fire pit for a rearrangeable outdoor gathering space? Permanent hopscotch court? Dog training obstacle course (add tube slots to keep equipment in place)? Little kids skateboarding practice (they need small flat areas)?
May 3, 2010 at 7:37 pm #169833
Bob LutherParticipantwhat is the overall size of the concrete area?
May 3, 2010 at 8:07 pm #169832
Roland BeinertParticipantWhat’s the context? Who would be using the space?
May 3, 2010 at 8:27 pm #169831ParticipantIt is a single shuffleboard court. I think the measurements are about 10′ by 50′. Not positive. It is a challenge to think of a use for such a narrow footprint.
May 3, 2010 at 8:28 pm #169830ParticipantIt is an unused court in a local park. It is not clear who the users might be. We have not had any groups express an intrest in reusing it.
May 3, 2010 at 9:15 pm #169829
Trace OneParticipantI absolutely loved the giant chess boards with giant chess pieces in a public park in Frankfurt I used to live close to..Chess board was on the ground, giant scale..Was very popular with the Germans, also, lots of open-air chess playing going on..Maybe not right dimensions..
How about some kind of stage-space for improv performances, ‘speakers’ corner like in London…
Permanent display space for sculpture/ christmas/seasonal stuff…
a maze..on the ground, flat, stenciled maze – kids love it, no maintenance (or minimal..)..
ok, back to work..May 3, 2010 at 9:32 pm #169828ParticipantI like the direction of these ideas. I was thinking some sort of ground mural. A maze is a neat idea and we could make it an eagle scout project. I like the checkerboard idea too.
May 3, 2010 at 10:24 pm #169827Bob LutherParticipantpaint it with “chalkboard paint” and make a horizontal chalk board for kids to create “everchanging” art
May 4, 2010 at 12:23 am #169826ParticipantThat is fun but is the chalkboard paint weatherproof? Kids use chalk to write on the ground directly w/o the paint. We could make window panes on the ground for art. That would be fun.
May 6, 2010 at 8:45 am #169825Bob LutherParticipantsince you have such a smooth surface you probible don’t need the chalkboard paint but a dark color exterior grade paint would help set the area apart for the kids to know there boundries and make the art work show better.
May 7, 2010 at 11:05 am #169824
Andrew Garulay, RLAParticipantWhy let the shuffleboard structure drive your design? Would it make more sense to go back to the basics and explore the needs of the park? Then do an analysis of the situation on the ground to see how this area, with or without the structure of the shuffleboard, lends itself to address any of those needs and if then if the structure is beneficial for any of those.
This reminds me of people who remove an above ground pool in their back yards and spend the rest of their lives trying to live around or “re-purpose” a circle of sand instead of having their lifestyle drive the design.
Function following form is not a good thing on its own. Harnessing an existing form that meets your needs is a good thing. Sometimes there is a fine line between “harnessing” and “following” form.
May 7, 2010 at 1:40 pm #169823ParticipantWell that would be ideal of course, but we already know the needs of the park won’t be able to be met with a shuffleboard court. It was more an exercise in repurposing older park elements that went in to the site in the 1970’s and seeing if we can modernize them with little to no funding opportunity. We get a lot of requests for Eagle Scout projects, and this would be a good thing to try and see if it becomes a popular element in the park. Sometimes you don’t know until you try.
If we had a pool we would love to repurpose as a skate spot, but politics don’t allow. Politics drives every park element installed in a site and how the different sites are managed. Fact of life in a park agency.
Replanning the park is not really an available option
May 9, 2010 at 1:37 am #169822Andrew Garulay, RLAParticipant… there must be a current type of comprehensive plan whether it is a plan of physical features or of activities that are wanted to be encouraged. Use those as a guide and try to bend the site to fit those needs or bend those desired activities to fit the site. This is supposed to be what makes us better than engineers and architects, isn’t it?
May 9, 2010 at 10:46 am #169821ParticipantThe parks do have master plans, but this is outside the scope. Sometimes we just need to think small.
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