Abstract
This portfolio includes a prospectus, technical report, and research paper examining the development of a public park and fire station in Chester, Virginia, as well as the mutually influential relationship between park design and diverse community social groups. My technical project, or capstone, focuses on developing a site design for the park and fire station within a defined scope. To guide our decisions, my team and I inquired if the community shared any feedback about the proposed project and incorporated those perspectives into our conceptual plans, which ultimately inspired my research question. Community projects often involve multiple stakeholders with differing opinions and priorities, and I aimed to understand how this range of input influences design decisions, particularly for public parks in Albemarle County. My goal was to apply these insights to strengthen my capstone design and to identify effective strategies for integrating community feedback into potential land development work that I may do in the future. The unifying theme between my technical and STS projects is the effective implementation of infrastructure and public facilities to benefit residential communities.
Chesterfield County’s current fire prevention infrastructure has been found to be inadequate due to aging infrastructure and population growth. In response, the county plans to construct a new fire station at 4700 West Hundred Road in Chester, Virginia. This site will also include a public park with walking trails that connect to a future trail network. Our project scope focused on determining site layout, grading, and external features for both the fire station and the park. The design requirements for the fire station include rezoning to O-2, a truck fueling area, parking spots, a dumpster area, utility connections, a BMP, sidewalks, a drive aisle, and additional quantitative features. The park design requirements include shelters, a restroom, a walking path, benches, and parking spaces. A fenced-in basketball court as well as a large playground area is also included in the park. These features were included to maximize usability for a wide range of community members. In addition to the park features, we included several landscaping sections, including around the front of the property, in between the basketball court and West Hundred Road. The goal of this landscaping buffer is to reduce the amount that noise and light from the park could disturb the nearby residents.
Using data from primary sources including questionnaires, interviews, and analyses of project documentation, I investigated how decision makers include community input in their park design process. My findings show that park investment in Albemarle County is strongly shaped by resident values. The county’s Department of Communications gathers input through public meetings, online surveys, email updates, and community pop-up events. This feedback directly informs decisions about park features and spatial organization. As noted by Tim Padalino, park design and development is fundamentally a partnership with the community.
This process aligns with two STS frameworks: Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) and Sociotechnical Imaginaries. SCOT explains how technological development is shaped by social, cultural, and political contexts; in this case, community input directly influences park design. Sociotechnical Imaginaries describe how shared visions of the future are expressed through technological systems. In Albemarle County, parks function as tools for fostering civic engagement and enhancing community well-being.
The general flow of our capstone involved the fall semester being us focused on the big picture and logistical side of this project, while in the spring we dove further into the technical details of the design, such as grading, storm water management, erosion & sediment control. It was overall, a very iterative process and we learned a lot about balancing how to meet the scope of the project while best serving the needs and preferences of the community.
My findings from my research concluded that an inclusive approach to park design strengthens representation and fosters a greater sense of belonging and shared ownership among community members, ultimately leading to more meaningful and widely utilized public spaces. This was helpful in finalizing the design of our capstone. Applying these findings to our capstone, we emphasized family-friendly features, particularly the inclusion of a playground and basketball court, to align with community priorities and encourage broader engagement with the park.
