GREAT AMERICA PARK

California's Great America Park

Concepts & Construction Drawings for Entertainment, Circulation, and Place-Making

​

California’s Great America Park represents a rare opportunity to design at true urban scale. Spanning approximately ninety acres, this multi-phase landscape concept plan reimagined the outdoor experience of a major theme park by shaping circulation, planting identity, and gathering spaces that support thousands of daily visitors. Rather than focusing on a single garden or courtyard, the project required thinking holistically—how landscape architecture could guide movement, reinforce themed environments, and provide comfort across a vast and highly active site.

​

DesignIntent was commissioned to develop conceptual designs for six distinct outdoor environments throughout the park. Three of these areas were dedicated to dining and entertainment—spaces where guests pause, gather, and recharge between attractions. In high-traffic settings like these, landscape becomes more than decoration; it provides shade, cooling, acoustics, and psychological relief from the intensity of rides and crowds. The design approach emphasized creating welcoming, human-scaled environments within the larger spectacle of the park.

​

Each dining zone was treated as its own outdoor room, defined through planting, paving patterns, and spatial organization. Seating areas were softened with trees and layered shrub masses to provide comfort and enclosure without limiting visibility or safety. Durable materials and clear circulation were prioritized to handle constant use while maintaining an attractive, cohesive look. The result is a series of flexible social spaces that feel lively yet grounded—places visitors naturally gravitate toward throughout the day.

​

At the heart of the site lies the Midway, a central paved corridor that functions as the park’s primary artery. Vast, open, and curvilinear, this space required careful landscape strategy to balance openness with wayfinding and visual interest. Rather than overwhelming the Midway with heavy planting, the design uses targeted green elements and rhythmic placement to frame views and subtly guide movement. The goal was to maintain the energy and clarity of a grand promenade while still introducing moments of shade and softness that make long walks more comfortable.

​

Another major component of the project involved landscaping the perimeter of a New Ride. Here, the landscape serves multiple purposes: screening operational edges, enhancing the themed environment, and preparing for future sustainability improvements. A proposed green roof—planned for later retrofit—was integrated into the conceptual strategy, demonstrating how ecological thinking could coexist with entertainment infrastructure. This forward-looking approach supports stormwater performance and heat reduction while adding a visible sustainability feature to the park.

​

Planting design across the project was guided by contextual storytelling and long-term durability. Rather than inventing a disconnected palette, the design intentionally worked within California’s Great America’s established vocabulary of paving materials and planting. This ensured visual consistency while still allowing each zone to have its own character.

 

For the New Orleans Court, the planting palette draws inspiration from the American South. Magnolia trees, boxwood hedging, and lush evergreen structure create a sense of classic southern charm, reinforcing the themed atmosphere of the space. In contrast, the Maggie Brown area embraces a low-water California palette, prioritizing drought-tolerant species and regional adaptability. This shift not only supports sustainability goals but also reflects the diversity of landscapes that can exist within one cohesive park.

​

Because the project spanned more than a year and covered multiple zones, project management and phasing were critical. Conceptual design had to account for ongoing operations, visitor safety, and future upgrades. Every element—from planting beds to paving alignments—was developed with flexibility and longevity in mind.

​

Ultimately, California’s Great America Park demonstrates how landscape architecture shapes experience at scale. It’s not just about beautification; it’s about circulation, comfort, identity, and resilience. Through thoughtful planting, durable materials, and contextual design, the landscape becomes an essential part of how visitors move through and remember the park.

​

This project highlights DesignIntent’s ability to operate beyond residential gardens—bringing strategic thinking, ecological awareness, and design clarity to complex public environments where performance matters as much as aesthetics.

​

For this sprawling 90-acre project, we provided construction drawings for six distinct spaces, three of which were eating and entertaining areas. The fourth was a central paved area, called the Midway, which was vast and curvaceous. The fifth was a New Ride whose edges needed landscaping and had a proposed Green Roof that will be retrofitted at a later stage. In all the projects spanned over a year and are still being photographed. Our main idea was to keep within the CGA palette of pavers and planting, while making the individual areas pop.

​