Tualatin Community Park's playground closes the week of Monday, Sept. 21, for a three-month rebuild replacing existing equipment with inclusive structures serving four times as many children.
The project at Tualatin's largest park swaps the old playground for four new play structures on 7,000 square feet of green synthetic turf, the Valley Times first reported.
Portland-based Buell Recreation, which also built the playground at Atfalati Park, is handling the installation.
The new equipment carried a $681,000 price tag. A $100,000 grant through the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department's Local Government Grant Program (LGGP), funded by state lottery proceeds, brought the cost to $581,000.
The remaining balance draws from the $5 monthly parks fee on every Tualatin utility bill. The LGGP has awarded more than $100 million to local government recreation projects since 2000.
Kira Hein, project manager for the Tualatin Parks and Recreation Department, said up to 400 children shaped the design during two months of city summer camps in 2025.
"They decided the colors … They decided which kind of tower (they) wanted, the type of climber, the type of rocker," Hein told the Valley Times.
Hein said the new setup should boost playground capacity from about 50 children to 200.
Equipment is geared to two age groups: 3 to 5 and 5 to 12. It includes an Innova Rocker that lets children in mobility devices rock alongside other kids, and a tall tower topped with bilingual educational panels depicting the river, native animals and trees.
The park's train and train-station cutouts will give way to a riverboat and ticket counter attached to a play structure. The sand pit stays.
On Wednesday, Sept. 16, three-year-old Ivan Ramirez was spotted enjoying the current slide.
His mother said she plans to take him to Tigard's Cook Family Park, at 13125 SW Hall Blvd., for playtime until the new playground opens. The Ki-a-Kuts Bike and Pedestrian Bridge connects Cook Family Park directly to Tualatin Community Park.
No firm reopening date has been announced.
