As lead landscape architect for the Perkins Road Community Park 2.0 Master Plan, I have both a personal and professional interest in the park’s future. I grew up about a mile away and, more than 50 years ago, rode my bike there to play ball and enjoy the park. I have valued this BREC asset ever since.
Our firm was also the landscape architect for the park’s original master plan in 2007. Connected to Perkins Road Park for nearly six decades — first as a kid and later as a professional planning its future — I have seen how the park has evolved and how much the community values it. So do I.
That history has reinforced something I believe strongly: Responsible stewardship does not mean preserving every facility as it exists today. It means maintaining what works, repairing what is worn and adapting facilities as recreational needs change.
That principle is at the heart of Perkins Road 2.0 — what I call our plan.
Rooted in BREC’s Imagine Your Parks 3, our plan was a collaboration among the public, existing and potential user groups, and BREC staff across planning, recreation, operations, maintenance and partnerships.
The process and result reflect stewardship: maintaining and modernizing what works while adapting underused areas to current recreational demand. The plan improves ball fields, playgrounds, shade, circulation, accessibility, drainage, parking, Olympia Stadium, pickleball, skateboarding and BMX facilities.
BREC is not simply responsible for managing public land. Its primary responsibility is providing public recreation responsive to the needs of the parish.
Perhaps nothing illustrates that evolution better than the velodrome.
Built for the U.S. Sports Festival in the 1980s, it was at the forefront of emerging sports tourism and served the community well for decades. Today it is in disrepair, while regional participation in fixed-gear track cycling has declined dramatically and is now nearly nonexistent.
Repurposing does not diminish its history. It answers a stewardship question: How can an underutilized facility best serve the next generation?
Answer: adaptive reuse.
The plan transforms the velodrome into a flexible recreational landscape supporting skating, field sports, casual recreation, community gatherings and performances — serving tens of thousands of people rather than a specialized activity serving only tens annually. Hardly novelties.
Only about one-third of the space is dedicated to performances. The remainder supports everyday recreation. The landform is naturally akin to an amphitheater, and research identified an unfilled market niche for this type of outdoor facility. It is a natural fit.
Entertainment elements represent around 10% of the overall park investment. Before implementation, an appropriate business and operating model will be established. We have discussed private or nonprofit partnerships for programming, management or capital support — models BREC has successfully used elsewhere.
Repurposing the velodrome does not eliminate cycling. Quite the opposite. It updates cycling opportunities to reflect how people ride today, with maintenance and staffing central to the proposal.
The high-maintenance BMX track is replaced with a low-maintenance concrete pump track offering challenges from beginner to advanced without requiring BREC staffing to operate. The skate park is renovated and expanded, while a recreation hub provides gathering areas, shade, refreshments and restrooms.
Bicycle and pedestrian connections link Perkins Road to BREC’s broader Greenway system. Cycling and skating remain central but become accessible to more people, across more skill levels, with a more sustainable model for daily use.
Much of our plan is unglamorous: drainage, safer circulation, lighting, shade, restrooms and accessible pathways. One objective is simple: Make the park easy to use for the widest range of people, with high-quality facilities supporting walk-up recreation.
Some facilities have remained largely unchanged since I was a kid. But public recreation does not stand still. Activities change. Expectations for accessibility, sustainability, shade and connectivity change. Responsible planning must recognize those changes while respecting what came before. Maintaining the status quo is not good stewardship.
Good stewardship means maintaining what works, repairing what is worn and adapting what no longer serves the community as well as it once did.
The park I rode my bike to more than 50 years ago has never stood still, and neither should the park we leave to the next generation.
That is what our plan is intended to do.