Emma Prusch All-Inclusive Playground

Among Silicon Valley’s tech corporate campuses, shopping centers, and urban neighborhoods—lies a surprising oasis where peacocks, chickens, and children roam free!

Thanks to a generous 47-acre gift to the City of San José, Emma Prusch Farm Park maintains the type of rural country atmosphere that once dominated Santa Clara Valley when the landscape was predominantly farms and orchards. The Park includes numerous highlights: free-ranging peacocks and chickens, community gardens, rare fruit orchards, livestock, a barn, historic buildings, and picnic facilities—but the cream of the crop is an all-inclusive playground designed for children of all ages and abilities to play together.

MIG’s whimsical, inclusive playground design builds on the agricultural history of the site with a giant hen climbing structure (named “Chiquita” by parkgoers), a chicken coop tower with log nest, and egg-shaped wobble boards for kinetic play. The design includes an accessible looping path, multiple slides and swings, a pebble play area, accessible playground surfacing, and musical features. Once exhausted from the high-energy and hands-on stimulation, there are plenty of places to rejuvenate, such as a nook in the coop’s roof, vine-covered nature retreats, and an integrated, shaded seating area that bridges two play areas. Woven throughout the new play area are shade trees, sensory plantings, bio-retention for stormwater, and new, ultra-efficient irrigation.

The playground provides much needed opportunities for respite and inclusive play in the City with meaningful links to the Valley’s heritage landscape.