Q and A with Mark Kline
Parks and Recreation Studio Leader
Q. What changes do you see in how citizens and park departments want to use parks in the future?
“Many park systems are in crisis control, others are having success, but do not see that their future may have hidden perils, and yet others are finding exciting new uses for their parks that are driven by their constituency. Stakeholders are demanding more uses from existing park land. We are designing traditional park spaces to become more flex spaces, more than one dimensional. These are multi- use facilities that can be used for more active recreation, or even more special event use. “
Q. What is an example of a “flex space” facility?
“Let’s use ball fields as an example. Careful consideration up front can allow for festival needs, balancing parking space utilization with proper alignment and pedestrian planning for traditional booth arrangements or music festivals. Many communities are using these ballparks for these events, but they haven’t been planning for them. How much more successful could they become with proper facility planning?”
Q. Are their specific facilities we can design?
“The Riverscape Pavillion in downtown Dayton, Ohio is a good example. We are designing into the grass plaza and other common areas, hundreds of yards of conduit, aligned with 10’x10’ booth layouts, to accommodate different festivals and events. Specific spacing layouts, and even water access are imbedded in the design. Other facilities can also accommodate outdoor movies and concert needs. These activities increase the park and the department’s visibility, empowering the director to demonstrate their worth in the community. By working it into their programming, citizens want more and suddenly Parks and Recreation rises in importance, challenging schools and fire and safety as “most important” to its citizenry.”
Q. Does this then speak to the opportunity to help them become more financially independent, to generate new funding sources?
"It’s clear that parks and recreation areas are losing ground financially to critical municipal demands such as renovating failed infrastructure, so it is important to become creative financially. We help parks department develop business plans in addition to land use, programming and facility design. We think about how their investment in us will show a high return on their investment. "
Q. Besides the awareness of a good R-O-I, what makes KKG unique?
"Besides helping departments improve their income stream, we carefully study and respond to them with new approaches to maintenance issues. We have a number of people on our staff that have worked for parks departments at all levels. We have heightened knowledge and awareness because we put on the park manager’s hat. We have staff that has been on both sides of this equation, budgeting and sustaining for long term viability."
Q. Along with our staff that has real experience, what else makes us unique in addressing Parks and Recreation requirements?
"We act and think as a multidisciplinary firm. We have come from the basis of site civil landscape architecture. We have broad experience in urban design, transportation planning, and we understand the private sector having worked with developers. This all has application in the new arena of building and maintaining competitive entertainment venues in a world with many entertainment choices.
Additionally, we never provide off the shelf format programming. We work from a clean slate for each client, each is definably different. We offer more than a few public meetings and a generic plan with a few bubble diagrams. We have been called in to fix too many poorly prepared projects. We promise deliverables that are ready for execution, including schedule and budget."
Q. What do you mean when you describe a project as the “yours, mine and ours” opportunity?
"It’s the way I like to describe collaboration. It means we know how to manage projects that involve multiple jurisdictions. State, County, and City park systems are forming new joint ventures. It means managing jurisdictional collaboration. We measure and recognize each agency’s strengths and responsibilities and manage them for the best cross funding opportunities, defining a shared cost and implementation. This is a significant trend and it is our mindset to figure how we can engage and help these jurisdictions succeed."