{"id":573,"date":"2018-10-17T15:40:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T15:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations\/?p=573"},"modified":"2018-10-17T15:40:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T15:40:25","slug":"tulsas-gathering-place-park-is-the-ultimate-meaning-of-family-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/playtime\/tulsas-gathering-place-park-is-the-ultimate-meaning-of-family-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Tulsa’s Gathering Place Park is the Ultimate Meaning of Family Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tulsa\u2019s Gathering Place Park<\/em> is the Ultimate Meaning of Family Fun<\/em>\u00a0\u21d2<\/strong>\u00a0On September 8, Tulsa celebrated the grand opening of\u00a0Gathering Place<\/a>, a new park beside the Arkansas River near the city\u2019s Maple Ridge neighbourhood. The goal behind it, says Executive Park Director Tony Moore, is to bring together Tulsans from all walks of life so they can enjoy a shared experience. That\u2019s not unusual\u2014but Gathering Place is very different from the average public park in its variety of spaces and sheer scale.<\/p>\n

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The Park\u2019s story began with the\u00a0George Kaiser Family Foundation<\/a>\u00a0and an extraordinary dream to transform nearly 100 acres of Tulsa\u2019s iconic waterfront along the scenic Arkansas River into a dynamic, interactive environment. Tulsans needed a welcoming, natural space where members of our diverse communities could come together to explore, learn and play. After years of planning, generous donations and input from the community, Tulsa\u2019s\u00a0dream became reality. In 2014, Gathering Place broke ground on Tulsa\u2019s world-class park. The\u00a0dream of a space to celebrate and gather along the river was becoming reality.<\/p>\n

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The park has a five-acre adventure playground for children aged two through 12, with seven different realms targeted for different age groups. Volcanoville was built specifically for toddlers and includes a padded play area with low-level climbing elements in bright colours. Charlie\u2019s Water Mountain has a spray area, mist area, tunnels, dams and streams, and a water lab.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Shane Bevel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Accessibility was important to the park\u2019s creators. There are 21 points to enter and exit. Long ramps allow children who use wheelchairs to access the lower levels of towers in the playground area, as well as a large elephant structure that has a slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ramps themselves don\u2019t look like your typical accessibility points,\u201d said Jeff Stava, the Gathering Place project lead at George Kaiser Family Foundation. \u201cIn fact, the ramps are so long and fun that able-bodied children love to run up them and down them as well. It creates an environment where children with disabilities and able-bodied children coexist in the play experience rather than being segregated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The park also has a sensory garden with a giant spinning boulder, and amplified voice tools that encourage kids to ask questions about the world around them.<\/p>\n

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In the middle of the park are a pond and a boathouse. Visitors can check out paddle boats, kayaks, and canoes.<\/p>\n

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A coffee\/ice cream cafe and dining patio offer a range of food options so park-goers can linger over a snack or meal. The park will host festivals throughout the year with vendors serving foods from different cultures.<\/p>\n

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Closer to the parking lots, Gathering Place features a spacious skate park, designed by California Skateparks. It has beginner through advanced courses to accommodate different skill levels.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn essence, [it\u2019s] a mini-theme park,\u201d Moore, the park director, told CityLab. A single day at a regular theme park can cost a family hundreds of dollars. One reason why\u00a0public parks are so valuable\u00a0is that locals can return to them over and over again, free of charge\u2014as people in the Tulsa area will surely do now that Gathering Place is open.<\/p>\n

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Tulsa\u2019s Gathering Place Park is the Ultimate Meaning of Family Fun\u00a0\u21d2\u00a0On September 8, Tulsa celebrated the grand opening of\u00a0Gathering Place, a new park beside the Arkansas River near the city\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[217,216,213,212,215,214],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-playtime","tag-family-activities","tag-family-fun","tag-gathering-place","tag-gathering-place-park","tag-gathering-place-park-tulsa","tag-gathering-place-tulsa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circu.net\/inspirations-old-wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}