A new park is set to go up in NoMa, at 3rd and L Streets NE, and the NoMa Parks Foundation recently unveiled three potential designs. Each has a dog park and an area for small children, including a unique jungle gym-like structure to increase play space in the small park.

The jungle gym-like “wall-holla” proposed for the Third Street park. Image by Carve.

The park will be the first in a planned system of parks in the near northeast neighborhood. Hoping to maximize space in the nearly 8,000-square foot plot, each plan by landscape architecture firm Lee and Associates splits the land about evenly between dogs and humans, with the jungle gym structure — called a “wall-holla” — adding play space for children on a vertical plane.

“You have microunits, this is a micropark,” says Jeff Lee, founding principal of Lee and Associates, at a meeting on the designs earlier in May.

The three plans by Lee and Associates for the Third Street park. All images by NoMa Parks Foundation and Lee and Associates unless otherwise noted.

The first two designs dubbed “The Wall-North” and “The Wall-West” place the space for dogs up against the wall of the Loree Grande on the southern edge of park with the outer areas of the park reserved for children and neighborhood residents. This layout dedicates the sunniest areas of the park to children and residents.

The Wall-North design.

“Incorporating the wall-holla is so important in options one and two,” said Tony Goodman, the ANC commissioner for 6C06 that includes NoMa, at the meeting. The structures, which he has looked at elsewhere, have capacity for a lot of children and will maximize use of the space.

“They’re very cool,” said Goodman, adding that the first one in the DC area is being installed in Gaithersburg.

The Wall-West design.

One aspect of the The Wall-West that jumps out are the many curving benches that allows users to face each other. This would cater to NoMa’s deaf residents and students at nearby Gallaudet University, which includes seating arrangements that enable visual communication in its DeafSpace design standards.

The Mounds design.

The third design, “The Mounds,” does not include a dedicated children area but adds a knoll and bridge for dogs.

Responding to resident input

The designs for the Third Street park are a result of strong resident desires for a dog park and space for children in the neighborhood. NoMa currently lacks both.

There were a lot of questions about the designs at the meeting, as residents like some aspects and not others. For example, a number of people did not like the lack of separation between space for children and others in The Mounds.

The lack of separation in the design is about seeing how the elements of The Mounds would fit into the overall scheme for the park rather than a final proposal, says Lee.

The final design for the Third Street park is likely to include various elements from the three proposals, he says. Lee and Associates can combine aspects residents like and remove ones they do not as it moves through the design process.

Despite support for a dog park in the neighborhood, some residents asked whether NoMa should hold off on designs for the space until the uses for the planned NoMa Green off the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT) are determined.

“I’m going to be completely honest, this is a somewhat dark, small site,” said Robin-Eve Jasper, president of NoMa BID. “It’s a great site for a greatly designed small dog park.”

She continued: “We don’t need to wait on designing this. We need to think of this as a little jewel that’s convenient for people in this area.”

NoMa plans to hire a designer for the NoMa Green and a small plot at the corner of the MBT and R Street NE donated by developer Foulger-Pratt within the next few months, says Jasper.

In addition, there is a small dog park owned by The Gale Eckington but open to all residents across Harry Thomas Way from the planned green site.

Lee and his team will refine their designs next, likely focusing on the two wall designs based on the resident comments at the meeting. The neighborhood will hold another community meeting once this process is complete.

Construction of the Third Street park is expected to take about three months with a target opening date in 2017.

Edward Russell is an air transport reporter by day with a passion for all things transportation. He is a resident of Eckington and tweets frequently about planes, trains and bikes.