Spokane County Parks and Recreation Department – Prairie View Park (south) / Bidwell Park (north)

Prairie View Park, located at 61st and Freya, includes a $4 million outdoor aquatic center, a large paved parking area, a multi-age playground areas, picnic shelters, a restroom, and paved trails around the site. The project was developed with an adjacent property owner participating in shared utility accesses and stormwater areas to the benefit of both projects. The park opened in 2008; SPVV recently completed an expansion that adds two competition-level ball fields to the 16-acre site, and is currently working on plans for expanding the water park.

SPVV served as landscape architectural consultants to the Spokane County Parks and Recreation Department for the creation of the master plan for Bidwell Park and the first-phase development that included a new aquatic center. The master plan process included conducting a public survey to more than five hundred schoolchildren and their families in the park service area – and preparing a design program based on those survey results. Several design alternatives were prepared for a subsequent public meeting; SPVV refined the public’s preferred alternative to serve as a preliminary, and later final, master plan. The 23-acre park includes natural areas, paved pathways, a sledding hill, parking, a softball field, and numerous other amenities. The first phase of the project, completed in mid-2005, includes a 4,700-square-foot aquatic complex that blends a zero-depth entry pool and a lap-type pool into a highly successful (and very popular) recreational resource. Additional phases were completed in 2010. SPVV is currently working on a major expansion of the aquatic facility, which will include the addition of a splash pad, two large water slides, an expanded deck area, new shade structures, a new softball/little-league field, parking, ADA accessible trails, and accessible restroom and picnic shelter facilities.