Little Rock officials will unveil a new playground Saturday along the Arkansas River that they hope will encourage children's imaginations to roam.
A dedication ceremony for Margaret Clark Adventure Park will be held at 10 a.m. at Riverfront Park and will include the unveiling of three sculptures: Tim Cherry's Roundbottomus Hippopotamus, and two sheep designed by Giuseppe Palumbo.
The new play area was created by Little Rock's Parks and Recreation and is designed to allow pre-school children a place to run, climb, balance, crawl and perform while under the watchful eyes of their parents.
City Director Dean Kumpuris said the park combines fun items, like musical instruments and swings, with an opportunity for kids to use their imaginations.
"We have slides and a spinner and swing seats, but the rest of the park we wanted kids to be able to use their imagination," Kumpuris said. "We didn't just want to have a park filled with equipment."
The playground is just west of the Marriott Hotel Conference Center and adjacent to the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden. It's modeled after Peabody Park, a play area just east of Adventure Park that features a splash pad.
"We found kids loved Peabody Park, but it wasn't as fun for younger children because they were getting bowled over by older kids," Kumpuris said.
Special Projects Administrator Scott Whiteley Carter said the city reinvented an area that included a seldom-used Riverfest stage called Sunken Plaza and an old fountain that served no real purpose. Workers replaced the fountain with a new splash pad for small children.
"Most people would say the land we had to build these parks on was too narrow, but we are in between the Arkansas River and the highway and that isn't going to change," Carter said. "We started to ask, 'What can we do to maximize the land we have now?'"
The city was able to redesign the small plot of land around the splash pad thanks to gifts and donations from people like Margaret Clark, and Isabel and John Ed Anthony, as well with as funds raised by members of the Junior League of Little Rock and friends of Riverfest Inc.
"Something like this would normally cost millions of dollars, but we are not anywhere close to that," Kumpuris said.
The challenge in creating the new park was getting items to the site because there was no road access, Parks Design Manager Leland Couch said.
"We couldn't just drive things here, so we had to build on to what was already here," he said.
The sunken stage was turned into a play area filled with rocks, tunnels and rubbery asphalt that children can fall down on and not seriously injure themselves. A hardly used eating spot became the perfect place for parents to sit and watch their children play.
The green and blue rubbery asphalt surfaces surround the area, giving the illusion of water and land. Climbing rocks situated among water-colored mats give the appearance of what Couch believes is a lizard, but he said it could be anything the mind imagines.
"We wanted kids to be able to come here and have a different adventure every time," Couch said.
The biggest issue, Kumpuris said, is that few people know the park exists. City officials hope Saturday's dedication will change that.
"It's a pretty avant-garde park that nobody knows is there," he said.
Metro on 09/21/2018