Park Design Services

Austin Parks Foundation is thrilled to offer Park Design services for Adopt-A-Park groups that are looking to make improvements to their parks. Whether you are looking for a little guidance with an on-site consultant or you need help you with long range planning, we are now offering a range of design resources that will help you with your favorite park’s design needs.

Park Design services are intended to provide design options to Adopt-A-Park groups at every scale, and are in complete coordination with the City of Austin’s Parks & Recreation Department.

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General Park Consultation

General on-site consultation to provide Adopt-A-Park groups with guidance for next steps on any park project. General Park Consultations give park adopters the chance to consult with the Austin Parks Foundation Design Team.

APF's Design Team will schedule an on-site consultation to provide general guidance for any of your park improvement projects or ideas.

General Park Consultation FAQ's

Detailed Park Design

Intended to help park adopters prepare their park improvement project for grant applications. Design work includes feasibility, design refinement, and cost estimating. Documents provided by Austin Parks Foundation’s Design Team will allow you to seek funding and provide your group with a project to solicit preliminary bids for construction.

Detailed Park Design FAQs

Overall Park Planning

Led by Austin Parks Foundation’s Design Team, this planning process guides Adopt-A-Park groups through visioning and creating an official park concept plan. The park planning and visioning process gives Adopt-A-Park groups access to professional designers. By working together and committing to meaningful public engagement, APF and the project team will encourage park users and community members to express the hopes and needs for their park. The community will form a consensus to drive the design of the plan and phasing. The overall park plan will be a useful tool for raising funds and providing next steps for implementation.

The design offering will include all documentation for the plan to be submitted to the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, in hopes of official adoption as a “Concept Plan”, which can lead directly into development of the park or portion of the park if funding is available. (Previously offered as Park Master Planning. Name of design offering has been changed to match terminology that the City of Austin - Parks and Recreation Department implemented on August 3, 2020) 

Overall Park Planning FAQs

Design Services is the newest step toward improving Austin’s green space

According to Trust for Public Land’s Parkscore, Austin ranks only 46th out of the 100 largest cities in the U.S. for how we take care of our parks. There are many ways to improve our parks, whether it’s adding benches or building a playscape. But, these improvements take a lot of planning before they can come to life. Austin Parks Foundation’s newest program, Park Design Services, is a great way for Adopt-A-Park groups to turn an idea into reality.

Three different services are now available, based on your parks needs:

General Park Consultation

General on-site consultation with our professional Landscape Architect to provide Adopt-A-Park groups with guidance on any park improvement project or idea.

Detailed Park Design

Intended to help park adopters prepare their park improvement project for grant applications and to be shovel ready for construction.

Park Master Planning

Led by a professional Landscape Architect, this master planning process guides Adopt-A-Parks groups through envisioning and creating an official master plan.

For many groups, the first step to park improvement starts with a master plan. A master plan provides a cohesive vision of what a park can turn into. This includes planned out amenities, and a guideline on moving forward.  The master plan will be the result of a collaboration between park adopter groups and their communities, Austin Parks and Recreation Department, and our Park Developer, Katie Robillard.

Interested in seeing examples of master plans? Check out this one for Brownie Neighborhood Park, which is still in progress, or this one for Pease Park.

It’s our hope that by offering this program to Adopt-A-Park groups across the city we will be able to speed up the improvement process. For groups struggling to find and afford these services, we hope Park Design Services will be the first step in supporting access to better parks for all!