Turtle of Merit: Oakland Avenue Playground Receives ASLA Design Award
ST. LOUIS, Missouri — St. Louis, there’s a new award-winning turtle in town.
The Forest Park Forever team behind the 2021 transformation of Oakland Avenue Playground received an award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), St. Louis Chapter. The playground’s 20-foot-diameter wooden stump turtle feature – a large turtle made of 144 tree stumps that is popular with little climbers – was recognized with a Merit Award in the Art and Landscape Architecture category, as part of the ASLA awards held last weekend.
Children play on the award-winning stump turtle feature at the Oakland Avenue Playground on the south side of Forest Park. The aging playground was completely renovated by Forest Park Forever in 2021.
The ASLA design awards “recognize excellence in the diverse practices of landscape architecture…with an aim to reflect the careful stewardship, wise planning, functionalism, context, execution and artful design of our cultural and natural environment.”
The Oakland Avenue Playground is located on Forest Park’s southern edge, near the intersection of Tamm and Oakland Avenues. Since the playground’s reopening in November 2021, families have enjoyed this playground as a destination of its own, as well as a fun stop on their way to the Saint Louis Zoo.
The $300,000 playground renovation was funded by donations to Forest Park Forever, including a lead grant from the PNC Foundation, and the City of St. Louis. The design for the renovated playground was based on feedback and ideas received during in-person community engagement sessions and online surveys with hundreds of local children and community members in 2020. It replaced aging equipment that was no longer code compliant.
Members of the project team celebrate at the ASLA design awards event on Feb. 3.
The stump turtle is a central part of the playground, a nod to the nearby turtle sculptures. Initial ideas for the project were limited to prefabricated playground equipment and rubberized safety surfacing, but Forest Park Forever led a design that would introduce children to play on natural materials and to give an identity to the space.
Design judges called the turtle “a fun intersection of art, interactive play, and design” and appreciated its relation to the nearby turtle sculpture park, “creating a link between the two while giving this park its own identity.”
The playground project team included the turtle’s designer and landscape architect, Russ Volmert, and engineer Dave Lenczycki, both of Forest Park Forever; sculptor Abraham Mohler, who sculpted the turtle head and feet; and Truss Brother Construction, who built the playground.
Materials for the turtle and seating were sourced from declining or dead trees removed from Forest Park and other city parks by City of St. Louis Forestry Department, as well as donated timber from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Overall, the playground includes two main play areas – one designed for children ages 2-5 and the other tailored for children ages 5-12. Learn more about its features and renovation here: forestparkforever.org/oaklandplayground.
About Forest Park Forever
Founded in 1986, Forest Park Forever is a private nonprofit conservancy that works in partnership with the City of St. Louis and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry to restore, maintain and sustain Forest Park, as one of America’s great urban public parks for a diverse community of visitors to enjoy, now and forever. Forest Park Forever has led major fundraising efforts to restore many landmark destinations in Forest Park, including the Emerson Grand Basin, the Boathouse and the Jewel Box.
In 2017, the organization completed a major fundraising campaign securing $139 million for Park restoration projects and an expanded endowment.
Today, Forest Park Forever maintains Forest Park with the City of St. Louis; raises funds for and helps manage capital restoration projects called for in the Forest Park Master Plan; delivers experiential educational opportunities to teachers, students and adults; and provides information and guides for the Park’s 15 million annual visitors. Not part of the Zoo-Museum Tax District, Forest Park Forever is supported by private donations from throughout the community, including its 7,000 members, 1,100 volunteers and many leading community and corporate partners.
Connect with us at facebook.com/forestparkforever, twitter.com/forestpark4ever and instagram.com/forestparkforever.
About Forest Park
Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri, is considered one of the nation’s greatest urban public parks. The Park’s 1,300 acres feature beautiful landscapes sprinkled with forests, ecosystems, nature reserves, lakes and streams, as well as five of the region’s major cultural institutions and endless opportunities for recreation. Forest Park attracts 15 million visitors each year, making it the sixth most visited urban park in the United States. In 2022, Forest Park was voted the Best City Park in the country in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.