Highland Village Apartments is a family-friendly affordable housing community. Located in the Bellevue Crossroads neighborhood within walking distance of schools, it features family-sized units and a new playground. Nakano Associates provided restoration landscape design for the renovation of existing buildings among mature trees and design of the new playground integrated into the courtyard of the newly-built apartments.
The playground provides opportunities of passive and active, structured and imaginative play in a courtyard easily supervised from the apartments above. Physical features include a grassy knoll of both real grass and grass-like play surfacing, an embankment slide, and play structures for toddlers and school-age children. The playground design was guided by principles of inclusionary play which complies with the most current ADA accessibility guidelines for play areas. There are numerous small gathering spaces with table and chair sets – two with permanent umbrellas, a seat wall, a bench, and a bring-your-own chair area. In this small courtyard, residents have space to play, visit with neighbors, and watch from the periphery.
Location, Bellevue, Washington
Client: King County Housing Authority
Architect: Innova Architects