Historic McClatchy Park
BIG IDEA
Located in the heart of Sacramento’s historic and economically disadvantaged Oak Park neighborhood, McClatchy Park was a beloved, but aging, neighborhood space on the site of a former amusement park known as “Joyland.” The City of Sacramento won state grant funding to expand the park’s amenities and to revive and upgrade the park’s older, less used, facilities to meet modern programming needs. The goal was to bring joy back to “Joyland.”
THE STORY
McClatchy Park is a historically significant site, —once a turn of the century amusement park that included a zoo, carousel, miniature train and a wooden roller coaster known as the “Scenic Railway”. Looking to celebrate this colorful past, CALA used semi-custom thematic play elements to add an amusement park twist to new expanded play facilities. Other modern programming elements requested by the community during outreach sessions include a butterfly garden, skate park and a carousel-inspired water play area.
One of the challenges of grant funded projects can be the requirement of meeting mandated deadlines. In the case of McClatchy Park, CALA was able to assist the City by moving efficiently from design development to preparation of 100% construction documents for $6 million worth of improvements, in just over one month. The team was able to reallocate resources and maintain regular communication with the City Project Manager to ensure that critical design decisions were addressed and that the accelerated process met all grant requirements.
THE DETAILS
CALA’s services included public outreach, master planning, design development and an accelerated process of construction documentation for grant-funded expansion of park facilities and renovations to existing infrastructure. In addition to play features and new programming, infrastructure improvements include water efficient irrigation, solar powered LED lighting upgrades, and grading and drainage system improvements.
Community Outreach
Design Development
Construction Documents
Construction Support
