Safe, Acces­si­ble Play­ground Sig­nage at Mar­ket Street Land­ing Inclu­sive Play Space

The Mar­ket Street Land­ing Inclu­sive Play Space is 8,000 square feet of fun along Ottumwa, Iowa’s River­front dis­trict. Its ful­ly acces­si­ble design gives every­one, from chil­dren to seniors, the space to gath­er, con­nect, and cre­ate life­long mem­o­ries. The play­ground is part of the city’s Mar­ket Street Land­ing Plan, which aims to revi­tal­ize the area into a hub for out­door recre­ation.

Wheel­chair-acces­si­ble fea­tures, inter­ac­tive play equip­ment, a sen­so­ry wall, an Aqua­He­dra® water fea­ture, and a giant kalei­do­scope help cre­ate a space where peo­ple of all abil­i­ties can play togeth­er. Native plant species and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly mate­ri­als add to the space’s beau­ty, cre­ate habi­tat for local wildlife, and reduce main­te­nance costs.

Work­ing hand-in-hand with Genus Land­scape Archi­tects, the land­scape archi­tec­ture firm behind the Mar­ket Street Land­ing Plan, Lat­i­tude was hon­ored to con­tribute vibrant, durable sig­nage that blends in with the park’s nat­ur­al beau­ty and pays trib­ute to com­mu­ni­ty support.

Cre­at­ing var­i­ous donor pan­els, plaques, and dis­plays was a big piece of the sig­nage project for the playground.

School of Fish donor recog­ni­tion dis­play: The pièce de résis­tance, this donor wall con­sists of around 100 pieces pre­ci­sion drilled and stud-mount­ed to a pre-cast con­crete wall. Each piece is fin­ished with a Gem­i­ni UV Col­or­last process, which com­bines a paint­ed base coat with high-res­o­lu­tion UV flatbed print­ing that is sealed with a clear gloss top­coat so the bright blues, greens, and reds will stay vibrant and strik­ing for years to come. The size of the fish sig­ni­fies the size of the donor’s contributions.

Indi­vid­ual donor pan­els and plaques: The Ottumwa Lega­cy Foun­da­tion want­ed both tac­tile and Braille copy includ­ed on all pieces for ADA com­pli­ance. Let­ters and Braille were fab­ri­cat­ed with NovAcryl, a spe­cial­ized pho­topoly­mer mate­r­i­al that will keep all text intact through all types of weath­er. Plaques are attached to walls, tables, and stones with stud­ded epoxy, while pan­els are attached to I‑beams paint­ed blue with white text for high-con­trast readability. 

Sen­so­ry wall donor plaque: For the sen­so­ry wall donor plaque, cus­tom tabs were fab­ri­cat­ed to slide direct­ly into the pre-cast con­crete slats of the wall. The instal­la­tion is fin­ished with a sil­i­cone seal for an inten­tion­al, clean look.

The All Abil­i­ties Play Space Main­te­nance Fund will con­tin­ue to col­lect dona­tions from com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and busi­ness­es to keep the play­ground safe, clean, and acces­si­ble. The for­ward-think­ing design of the sim­ple plaque and pan­el designs will make adding future donor sig­nage easy.

At the main entrance to the park, a mon­u­ment sign with two 0.5” pan­els wel­comes vis­i­tors. To keep these pan­els sta­ble, our instal­la­tion team cre­at­ed addi­tion­al brac­ing on the base to help secure them against the con­crete base.

I‑beams ele­vate High Pres­sure Lam­i­nate (HPL) graph­ic pan­els that share infor­ma­tion about the park’s native wildlife and plants. To secure the pan­els to the I‑beam posts with­out cre­at­ing catch points or bulk­i­ness, our team used a router to cre­ate cus­tom mounts, allow­ing the pan­els to sit seam­less­ly on the I‑beams.

Any sig­nage we cre­at­ed for the play­ground had to be struc­tural­ly sound to stand up to Mid­west weath­er, includ­ing strong winds, extreme heat, snow, and ice. But the signs also had to be con­struct­ed with chil­dren in mind. As many Lat­i­tude team mem­bers have kids of our own, we know that they climb, pull, and play on every­thing, includ­ing signs. Stan­dard sign edges, espe­cial­ly on exposed met­al posts, wouldn’t cut it. Every com­po­nent (includ­ing that 100-piece donor wall) had to have eased edges to pre­vent injuries. Our fab­ri­ca­tion team even went to the play­ground after the signs were installed to make sure all edges were eased, mak­ing touch-ups where necessary. 

As for weath­er dura­bil­i­ty, many of the playground’s signs were mount­ed on alu­minum I‑beam posts. On a windy day, those signs would sway if they weren’t installed prop­er­ly, which posed a safe­ty risk. Instead of rely­ing sole­ly on stan­dard angle clips, we ful­ly weld­ed each beam to a plate that con­nects all pieces at the base of the sign. 

Plan­ning for struc­tur­al needs ear­ly and mak­ing adjust­ments on site allowed us to suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­er on safe, durable, acces­si­ble sig­nage that helps every­one feel wel­come and cared for at the Mar­ket Street Land­ing Inclu­sive Play Space. By ease-edg­ing every piece and going above and beyond to keep com­po­nents secure­ly sta­bi­lized, the play­ground now has a range of signs, pan­els, and plaques that will remain safe and acces­si­ble for gen­er­a­tions to come. 

Have ques­tions on this project or one that you’re think­ing about? Con­nect with us here, any­time.