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Joya at Oran Good Park has lit up the night since it opened Jan. 20.
The nation’s first glow-in-the-dark park was designed as a creative destination for families to reconnect. Because of the intent for its use after dark, Joya will provide respite from the summer heat and extend park use through the evening during the darker months of the year.
It already has drawn visitors from outside the city.
Despite temperatures in the 20s and 30s, turnout at the grand opening was amazing, said Kerry Phillips, director of parks and recreation.
“It was probably one of the best events I’ve ever held and been a part of,” he said. “Even with the weather being the way it was.”
The park was conceived by Mike Mashburn, former deputy city manager who was director of parks and recreation at the time, after being challenged by former Mayor Robert Dye to come up with ideas for a signature park.
“We’ve always branded ourselves as the City in the Park,” Dye said. “We should have the best parks. We wanted a park that would put Farmers Branch on the map.”
Mashburn, whose last day as deputy city manager was Jan. 20, said he was inspired by what he described as the “magical” way Disneyland lights up after dark.
“As the sun goes down, the park sort of glows. Most kids will never have that feeling, so I wondered how to bring that to more kids,” he said.
The glow-in-the-dark concept was one of three he provided to the Farmers Branch City Council, and the one approved Nov. 16, 2021, authorizing a contract with Kompan Inc. for the design and installation of the park.
Council at the time was made up of Dye, serving as mayor, and councilmembers Cristal Retana, Michael Driskill, Traci Williams, current Mayor Terry Lynne and David Merritt.
“I will credit all the members of both councils for seeing the vision,” Mashburn said.
“For me, I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, and I wanted to create a place where everyone could go.”
In addition to providing a unique park, Mashburn said it was a priority for him that the park was accessible to everyone and inviting to children of all ages.
“I’ve never been to a playground that appeals to a 16-year-old,” he said.
That issue was personal to Mashburn because he has three children with a 10-year age span. He said his 14- and 16-year-old children didn’t enjoy parks the same way that his 6-year-old did.
“How can we tie the whole family back together, because we are so distracted by TV and video games?” he said.
To accomplish that, Mashburn said he held focus groups for children as young as 4 or 5 years up to 18.
Response from attendees at the grand opening was enthusiastic.
“It’s amazing,” said Giovanni Trumbo of Plano. “I grew up in Spain, and it’s important to have clean and well-kept public spaces in Europe, so I’m glad to see spaces like this here.”
Jane Sevener, 10, of Carrollton described the zipline as amazing.
Johanna Aguilar’s daughter Jayla Garcia, 9, agreed.
“It’s really fun,” she said.
Aguilar, of Farmers Branch, said they watched as the park was built and eagerly anticipated its opening.
“They’re very anxious to come,” she said of her children.
Phillips said he was amazed to see the park come together from concept to reality.
“It’s making more of an impact on me than I thought it would,” he said.
Phillips said the most challenging aspect of construction of the park for him was coordinating the contractors. He said he was tasked with staying on top of the project and making sure everything was according to plan and nothing was missed.
Park architect Simone Mansur Riedl, architect and solutions designer for Kompan Inc., confirmed Joya is the first glow-in-the-dark, night-time park in the United States. As a result, she said the design included a lot of research and design to figure out the lighting.
In addition to being conscious about the impact of light on bird behavior, she coordinated with the lighting engineer and completed light studies.
“We didn’t want it to glare so the parents could see their kids inside and the children could see their parents, Riedl said.
In addition, the 27-foot sphere was the largest sphere the company had created.
“You’re not going to find this anywhere else in the U.S.,” she said.
Kompan strives to make all their playgrounds accessible to everyone, she said, and has child development experts on staff.
Joya includes a universal carousel that any child can use, a high-capacity see-saw, sensory elements, climbing gear and quiet areas, such as the tunnels under the sphere for “the child who needs a place to hide from the overstimulation.” The space under the sphere is wheelchair accessible.
The park also was created with the Texas heat in mind.
While Joya was designed for night-time use, Riedl said she was aware that daytime users would be affected by heat. Kompan studied the park elements to make sure shades were in the best position.
“The slides have shades over the exits,” she said. “When the slide is covered, it acts like a chimney and guides the heat up and out of the slide.”
In addition, the tops of the slides have a cover to help with air circulation.
Mashburn concurred that the design team was concerned about how the heat and sun will affect the slides, which are made of metal because they were custom built for this project and will provide better longevity than plastic slides would.
“You can’t get off-the-shelf slides that long, that wide,” he said.
In addition to being oriented so the sphere and surrounding trees shade the slides, Mashburn said ventilation cutouts will help make sure they don’t get too hot.
“Quite honestly, I think you’ll find a more pleasurable experience than you would with unshaded plastic slides,” he said.
However, he said studies show that when outside temperatures exceed 85 degrees, people tend not to use playgrounds.
In response to questions raised by people using the park, Riedl said the equipment that looks like basket swings but are chained to the ground are hang-out pods.
She said public-safety regulations do not allow swings to be attached to other structures. Instead, the equipment in that area of the park is designed for older children who tend to become less physically active unless they are in sports. The hang-out pods allow the user to wiggle and become more active than they otherwise would be, even as they lounge and relax with friends.
Another design question raised by adults concerns a half-ladder from the ground to the first level of the sphere.
Riedl said the structure is designed for sliding down from the structure, not for going up to the first level.
She said playgrounds are now designed to force children to problem solve, and that she designed elements that don’t necessarily have obvious uses.
“It’s very important for them to help their problem solving for their development,” she said. “This helps the kids to figure out how things work.”
Riedl attended Joya’s grand opening with her 19-year-old son, who she said was suitably impressed by his mother’s work.
“He doesn’t get impressed easily by the stuff that Mom does,” she said. “So Mom’s cool again.”
Joya was largely funded by the Federal American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, and provided $4 million toward the park and a Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission non-urban outdoor grant of $750,000 that required a matching amount of $750,000 from the City of Farmers Branch for a total cost of $5.5 million.
Mashburn said the park came in under budget though he did not provide any more financial detail than is listed on the city’s web site for the park despite being asked.
“To be able to come in under was certainly a win for this,” he said. “There is a lot of distrust in government and a lot of it stems from the federal level. Your local government is as clean as it can get. Everything has checks and balances.”
When it comes to maintenance, Phillips said Joya would require daily cleaning and maintenance with the bathroom and daily safety checks, but that he didn’t think there would be other maintenance issues.
Phillips said poured-in-place rubber ground covering has a high cushion rating and is easy to clean and reduces many maintenance issues.
“It’s so much easier to maintain, and it keeps the park looking so much cleaner,” he said.
Phillips said wood fiber ground covering like what is at the other Farmers Branch parks requires weekly fluffing by parks and recreation staff.
The park is not quite finished.
Phillips said lighting on the bridge has yet to be installed because it is on backorder, but even without, he is pleased with the park and the public’s reception.
“I’m just overwhelmed at how great it turned out,” he said.
In addition, Mashburn and Police Chief Kevin McCoy concurred that crime will not be a problem at Joya.
Mashburn said the parks department worked with law enforcement before the park was built.
“You don’t stop progress because we’re scared of the worst-case scenario,” Mashburn said. “The way to push out crime and nefarious activity is to activate the space. Drug dealers want to hide in the shadows where people aren’t at.”
Imani Amous of Hurst visited during the grand opening with her sisters and their children. She said her father sent information about the event to her.
“It’s just chaotic,” she said. “I’ll come back when it’s not as chaotic.”
Since the grand opening, Riedl has watched activity at the park from a camera feed that she has access to and says the park almost always has activity during daylight hours and during the evening.
Joya is located at 13201 Tom Field Rd. It is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
