Mulock Park – Playscape

Discover This project is part of the Mulock Park project.

Newmarket’s new 16-acre Mulock Park encompasses the 11-acre extant core of a former private estate and an adjacent existing park. Through community consultation, we determined that the existing park’s tree copse will be retained and restored, while one of its open areas will become a playground that park visitors and kids living in the area can easily access.

While generating opportunities for rambunctious fun, the playground imparts forest life-cyle teachings. Collectively, its zones represent a fallen tree that nurtures forest growth. Its roots incorporate real root flares and the mossy mounds that result when trees rot into the forest floor. A climbable ‘log nest’ with giant mushrooms is the tree’s canopy. Larger elements in the sand play area are the tree’s limbs; kids can pump water and watch it flow down a channel running a limb’s length. The ‘trunk’ is a log structure that can be climbed from inside or outside. Laura Marotta’s Leaf Logs, the playground’s site-specific artwork, represents the path of leaves falling to the forest floor. Trees felled for park construction edge the play area.

Client: Town of Newmarket
Structural: Blackwell Engineering
Lighting: MBII
Civil: Walter Fedy
Renderings: Views – Earthscape
Artwork – Laura Marotta
Plans – PLANT Architect Inc.
Artist: Laura Marotta, Michael Belmore and D’Andrea Bowie
Team: Lisa Rapoport, Eric Klaver, Kartik Kumar, Margot Shafran, Carla Lipkin, Karen May, Nico van Loggerenberg, Wendy Duggan

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