Overview

East Rancho Dominguez Park in Compton, California, is a five-acre park that is a staple in the community. Formerly known as East Compton Park, it offers many recreational programs and community events. This park is most well known for being the place where tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams learned to play tennis, but now it’s also known for something else – its History of Flight themed playground. 

Key Challenges and Solutions

The History of Flight themed playground celebrates the park area’s aeronautical past with custom whimsical flying play equipment to help kids’ imaginations soar. The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department designed the playground in-house with their project management team, Landscape Structures Inc. (LSI), and RecWest Outdoor Products. Playground equipment was provided by LSI, and the 8,141-square-feet of SpectraPour pour-in-place rubber playground surfacing was supplied by SpectraTurf.

The playground equipment installed by LSI is one-of-a-kind. The Smart Play® Breeze® offers a hot air balloon experience among the clouds for two to five-year-olds, complete with a decorative ticket booth and early learning play equipment designed to invite tactile curiosity. The preschool play area also includes a bucket seat swing set in colors resembling an airport windsock.

The play area for five to 12-year-olds offers a one-of-a-kind Plane Climber with pilot and co-pilot seats ready to taxi down the runway for a fun adventure! A Double Slide sits on an embankment to protect kids from any sudden jet blasts. The airplane structure was the concept of Jorge Gutierrez, Project Manager with the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department. He sent a picture to LSI and asked them if they could build it. They did, and now this airplane is the only one of its kind in existence.

A Space Shuttle also stands ready for launch, awaiting a countdown from the adjoining Mission Control Tower complete with two curvy slides. A Global Motion® two-level group spinner and triple-bay swing set with seaplane colors round out the high-flying fun. 

The entire site comes together with a distinctly detailed and very colorful SpectraPour surface design. It features five earth-tone colors and a runway with launch pad. The graphics around the rocket were done wet to blend the colors and to create the look of a rocket blast. SpectraPour's shock-absorbing qualities make it ideal for playgrounds, in addition to being comfortable for walking and standing. The 2-layer system features a base layer of shock-absorbing rubber and a wear layer of half inch-thick rubber granules.

The equipment for this project was installed by Evergreen Environment, Inc., and the landscape architect was Studio One Eleven.

Photo Credit: Anna Alverio