Designing a Park for Generations to Come
Frisco, Texas imagines an ambitious city park for an evolving community.
Public parks are meant to serve entire communities. That means they have to be designed for the needs of a spectrum of different groups—from kindergarteners who need a place to run around after school to older adults who greet the morning with tai-chi, friends having picnics, and even school field trips to learn about local ecology. The ability to serve these diverse groups is part of the wide-ranging utility and beauty of a park—and can make designing an ambitious new green space, like the more than 1,000-acre Grand Park in Frisco, Texas, a big challenge. Together, the City of Frisco and IDEO worked directly with residents to create an intergenerational, collective vision of what the park can be, and how it can serve their needs now, and for generations to come.
94
Frisco residents were engaged in the process, from City Council members to high school students
200+
respondents shared anonymous feedback on what they imagined the park should be
The population of Frisco is growing rapidly; its population is up 516 percent since the year 2000.
At more than 1,000 acres, Grand Park in Frisco is even larger than Central Park in New York City.
Less than one percent of Blackland Prairie soil remains in the region, and some of it is in Grand Park.
Designing a piece of a city, like a park, doesn’t start with a blank slate. There are always traces of the past and the present, and the lived history of its residents.
To create a full picture of that story, the IDEO team built workshops for the community centered around questions about the unique experiences of living in Frisco. They invited them to reflect on the communities they grew up in, the city of today, and the public spaces that have played formative roles for them.
From their answers, a common value emerged: heritage. Frisco is a rapidly-growing city, with residents whose families have lived there for centuries living side-by-side with more recent neighbors from diverse cultures and ethnic groups. Participants shared a vision of Grand Park as a unifying, shared space, a backdrop where many families can form foundational memories in Frisco.
Next, IDEO brought in multisensory design prompts to help participants further conceptualize the park. How did they want it to feel, sound, and smell? In the built-up, suburban city of Frisco, residents imagined a space that was less planned, enabling guided wandering and exploration. They also hoped that the park would inspire loved ones and descendants to feel a sense of curiosity and wonder.
At the end of workshops and sessions with community groups, the IDEO team took Polaroids of participants, asking, “What’s one word you want to describe Grand Park in the future?” Those words informed the collective vision that IDEO delivered to the city of Frisco, which included spatial concepts, user journeys, and branding for the park, all designed to showcase its unique landscapes. In January 2024, Frisco City Council approved the vision statement, and officials expect to break ground in the second half of 2025.
Designing a piece of a city, like a park, doesn’t start with a blank slate. There are always traces of the past and the present, and the lived history of its residents.
To create a full picture of that story, the IDEO team built workshops for the community centered around questions about the unique experiences of living in Frisco. They invited them to reflect on the communities they grew up in, the city of today, and the public spaces that have played formative roles for them.
From their answers, a common value emerged: heritage. Frisco is a rapidly-growing city, with residents whose families have lived there for centuries living side-by-side with more recent neighbors from diverse cultures and ethnic groups. Participants shared a vision of Grand Park as a unifying, shared space, a backdrop where many families can form foundational memories in Frisco.
Next, IDEO brought in multisensory design prompts to help participants further conceptualize the park. How did they want it to feel, sound, and smell? In the built-up, suburban city of Frisco, residents imagined a space that was less planned, enabling guided wandering and exploration. They also hoped that the park would inspire loved ones and descendants to feel a sense of curiosity and wonder.
At the end of workshops and sessions with community groups, the IDEO team took Polaroids of participants, asking, “What’s one word you want to describe Grand Park in the future?” Those words informed the collective vision that IDEO delivered to the city of Frisco, which included spatial concepts, user journeys, and branding for the park, all designed to showcase its unique landscapes. In January 2024, Frisco City Council approved the vision statement, and officials expect to break ground in the second half of 2025.
