Parks Opens New Playground at Vogel Park

Vogel Park playground. Photo taken July 30, 2024 by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Parks cut the ribbon Tuesday morning for a new ADA-accessible playground at Vogel Park.

Located at 8601 W. Lancaster Ave, just north of Hampton Ave., it is the latest neighborhood park in the system to receive a playground upgrade that includes design elements to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities, or who use mobility devices.

The new playground was constructed this summer using a design based on community input. It went in near the parks boundary on W. Lancaster Avenue where there used to be a basketball court and a small parking lot. It also replaced a 25-year old playground that was tucked into the west side of the park, which parks recently tore down.

“This is an opportunity to make sure that we continue to invest in all of our parks,” County Executive David Crowley said.

The new playground cost the county approximately $278,737. The county executive said he thinks most county residents understand the parks system has a massive backlog of projects it needs to get to, which compete for funding with smaller projects in neighborhood parks like Vogel.

“So to have this on the north side at Vogel Park is just a treat for me,” Crowley said. “It’s a neighborhood that I actually used to live in and I know many people in the community are going to be utilizing the park and utilizing this great new space for their children and bringing their families together.”

Where the old Vogel Park playground had sand fill the new one has wood chips and poured-in-place rubber surfacing. The wood chips and the rubber surfacing are both in line with ADA-requirements, whereas sand places a greater limit on mobility, and the rubber in particular allows persons using wheelchairs to move around in the playground, said Mike Marlin, a parks senior landscape architect.

“We’re really excited about this playground,” Parks Director Guy Smith said. “There’s a lot of greenspace, but the old playground was 25 years old, and we just really needed to rejuvenate this space.”

Along with the new ADA-surfacing and play equipment, parks has also installed new benches and bike racks. And moving the playground from the western corner of the park near the entrance of the park along W. Lancaster Avenue also serves to better showcase the playground and the park, Smith said.

“I think the fact that the residents also came together and they had a say in how it looks is great,” said Sup. Sequanna Taylor, who was at the park for the ribbon cutting with her granddaughter. The supervisor, who represents the park on the county board, said she was “elated” to see how the new playground turned out.

Parks has been installing ADA-accessible infrastructure in all new playground builds, as recent projects have demonstrated. It is also currently working with The Ability Center to redevelop what was formerly called Wisconsin Avenue Park into the county’s first universally accessible park.