Hillis Hans Park, Mishawaka

The City of Mishawaka recently added inclusive play equipment at Hillis Hans Park. In 2011 Lehman & Lehman designed plans for a makeover of Hillis Hans, a neighborhood park south of downtown Mishawaka, that included a new picnic pavilion, new lights, a new brick sign, walking paths and new curbs and street surfacing around the park. We are proud to have also been a part of these new additions to the Hillis Hans Park. Read the South Bend Tribune story here.

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Bethel College Prayer Garden Dedication

The upperclassmen council of Bethel College (Mishawaka, IN) hosted a senior forum that led to the idea of building a prayer garden for the Class of 2016's class gift to the college. Lehman & Lehman was then commissioned to develop a conceptual plan.

The goal was to provide a peaceful place to use for intentional prayer. A prayer garden also allows a space for solitude and quiet, and to get away from dorms, noise and distraction.

Bethel College recently held a Prayer Garden Dedication for this new addition to their college campus.

Valparaiso's Tower Park

Lehman & Lehman was commissioned by Valparaiso Parks to create an overall master plan for Tower Park. Yesterday the plans concerning the future of the Tower Park baseball field were presented to the public.

Tower Park's Baseball field, thanks to a donation from the Samardzija family and Valpo Parks Department, will undergo renovations to update the field with a variety of upgrades culminating in its reinvention under the name of Samardzija Field.

"This is part of our continuing efforts to preserve our park system but also preserve the culture and legacy of our community," said Valpo Parks Department Director John Siebert. "This is the latest example of our extraordinary community culture of leaders giving back."

Mike Bultinck, Landscape Architect, presented the conceptual plans. Check out the full story here.

Mike Bultinck • Landscape Architect • Lehman & Lehman, Inc.

Mike Bultinck • Landscape Architect • Lehman & Lehman, Inc.

 

 

Kids to Parks Day

Saturday, May 21st is Kids to Parks Day, sponsored by National Park Trust. They are encouraging children across the country to explore their neighborhood parks and discover science, history, nature and adventure right around the corner or just across town. 

Visit kidstoparks.org to find Activity Guides, an Adventure Book, and more information that will help jumpstart your adventure!

Brincka Cross Gardens

In 2007 Porter County Parks & Recreation commissioned Lehman & Lehman to develop a master plan for the Brincka Cross property, near Michigan City, that would restore the unique county park to much of its original state as one of the first gardens to look at plants and nature as sculpture, as designed by Bill Brincka, a pioneer in the field and an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

We are now pleased to congratulate Porter County Parks & Recreation for recently being honored with the Excellence in Resource Improvement Award at the Indiana Parks and Recreation Association annual conference.

We encourage you to visit the Brincka Cross Gardens and see the 400 different types of hostas, 450 varieties of daffodils, 25 kinds of crab apple trees, 40 cultivars of ornamental grasses and 25 varieties of forsythias - and much more - for yourself.

Recommended Reading

We've assembled a collection of magazines on the Lehman & Lehman website, Recommended Reading tab, that was created to provide a variety of interesting topics. These magazines are updated daily with articles from numerous sources of the same genre. If you'd like, you can subscribe to them and a link will be sent to you daily with the updates. They're just a click away!

A sample article, How to Master Your Life with the Decision-Making Diet, from the Collaborating Towards Thrivability magazine, can be found here.

10 That Changed America

Lehman & Lehman is proud to be a sponsor of a new series on PBS that will showcase how our ideas of housing have changed over the years (10 Homes that Changed America), trace the evolution of our city parks (10 Parks that Changed America), and show the history of urban planning and the evolution of the suburb (10 Towns that Changed America).

Locally, the series will be broadcast on WNIT Channel 34.1, beginning April 5, 2016. Their schedule can be found here

More information on each segment is available here.

The Economic Impact of Local Parks

National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) has announced the first study identifying and quantifying the nationwide economic contribution of the thousands of local and regional public parks throughout the country is now available and the findings are significant. This report not only demonstrates that the nation’s local and regional parks generate nearly $140 billion in economic activity per year and support nearly 1 million jobs, but also breaks down the significant economic impact for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Local parks contribute to healthier communities, bring diverse populations together and support environmental conservation and stewardship. All of these are important contributions to communities and are benefits felt by millions of people. Now, we know definitively that parks are also powerful engines of valuable economic activity and deserve support and recognition from elected officials, policymakers and the public.

The Executive Summary from the study conducted by the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University for NRPA can be found here.