Parks Recreation and Tourism

Parks Design

Roberts, R. (2010). DESIGN FOR THE Bottom Line. Parks & Recreation, 45(3), 48.

The author of this report has been asked to find a recent parks design article from an approved list of scholarly publications. This report will start with a summary of the article found and reviewed for this assignment. The second section will answer a series of brief questions that pertain to the article including who the article was designed for and how well the article is structured.

The main point of the article reviewed was that parks should be designed and constructed with the bottom line in mind. The article speaks of an example where a park was planned a year and a half in advanced which included tours of pre-existing facilities around the state. The economy started to go south when the final approvals were finally logged and this led to a huge drawback in what was approved and what was deemed to be affordable. The article drives home the points that economic downturns are actually a good opportunity, going green can help the environment and the bottom line if done correctly and the best public interest and the cheapest option do not always coincide (Roberts, 2010).

Questions about Article

The article's target audience is clearly more casual readers rather than scholars. The article focuses on keeping things simple and covering a number of important points rather than delving too deep into any one topic and/or using terminology/jargon that would be over the head of a casual users. Truth be told, it would be best for public officials that are involved in the approval and planning of park facilities and need some perspective as to how to properly think and plan the process. The tidbits in the articles are more general guidelines as opposed to material that is very specific and technical in nature (Roberts, 2010).

The article is structured quite well. It offers a cautionary tale up front and then gives good example of how to avoid the pitfalls touched upon in the example as well as some good general guidelines relating to how to do the process in general. The point of the article is that some solid pre-planning and doing things right the first time can keep things cost-efficient and free up money for options and details that will help the bottom line more than the money it would save to cut corners up front. To that end, the article is very useful and is a good lesson even for people that are not involved the parks and recreation construction/design process. The above can absolutely be applied and used in other situations (Roberts, 2010).