Building on the success of Pinehurst Park, RJM Design Group was invited by the City of Chino Hills in 2024 to expand the park’s amenities with an exciting new Splash Zone. Spanning 161,000 square feet, this dynamic addition will feature a state-of-the-art community center, two building patios, a 1,400-square-foot splash pad soak zone, and a 2,300-square-foot water exploration play area.
The City of Burbank proudly introduces its first-ever dog park, a vibrant and thoughtfully designed space honoring the late American television and radio personality, Dick Clark. This expansive 2.4-acre park, located at the south end of Johnny Carson Park, offers a premier destination for dogs and their owners to play, socialize, and unwind. Nestled alongside the Ventura Freeway and Los Angeles River, the park features separate fenced areas for large and small dogs, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience for pups of all sizes.
Imagine a vibrant community hub where dog owners and their furry friends can come together, socialize, and enjoy the great outdoors! The Glendale Dog Park Feasibility Study is an exciting initiative dedicated to making this vision a reality. Through an extensive outreach program that engaged over 268 community members via surveys, workshops, and online feedback, the study gathered valuable insights to identify ideal locations for a dog park that serves both large and small dog owners. Key potential sites include North Glendale, Brand Park, and Glendale Community College.
Out of all the requests from the community of Rowland Heights, the Dog Park at L.A. County’s Peter S. Schabarum Regional Park was put up front on the list of park improvements requested of the L.A. County Parks & Recreation Department. Through extensive planning, the dog park location was selected on the northwest side of the 575-acre park. Conceptual design was formulated during planning review with RJM Design Group. A 3-dimensional graphic of the dog park area was then presented to the community and was well-perceived. One request from the community was to name the park “Dali’s Dog Park”.
Boulder Pond Park, located within a newly developed residential community in Rancho Mission Viejo, serves as a key recreational hub for residents of all ages, including an age-qualified 55+ neighborhood and multi-generational homes. Positioned along a main corridor, the park was designed to enhance community connections while integrating seamlessly with the adjacent pool facility. The site’s steep northern slope required stabilization, and its long, narrow layout influenced the overall design. To address these challenges, the landscape incorporates hillside-stabilizing plants for erosion control, while walking paths foster connectivity between neighborhoods and amenities.
The Big Bear Alpine Zoo is an animal rehabilitation facility that is nestled in the mountains of the San Bernardino National Forest. RJM was a part of the design team responsible for developing a brand new animal care facility on a new parcel in close proximity to the original facility. Working directly with the lead consultant zoo designers, RJM carefully designed a landscape that not only served as a beautiful backdrop to the new facility, but also a botanical garden that would teach visitors how native plants and animals interact. Special attention had to be taken in crafting a precise list of plant material that would not only thrive in the unique alpine lake climate, but also be pyrophytic (fireproof) due to potential wildfires, and non-toxic to the animals and visitors alike. The final product was a beautiful natural habitat for recovering wildlife while serving as a biological learning center for all generations and for years to come.
The Portola Park Dog Park is an approximately 37,000 square foot dog recreation area, accessed via a meandering pathway from the larger Portola Park.
The California Oaks Sports Park Pool was renovated into a state-of-the-art aquatic facility after an extensive community outreach process. The project includes a 2,750 SF aquatics building with offices, locker rooms, and restrooms, as well as a separate pool equipment and concessions building. The pool features an 8-lane lap swim area, instructional areas, accessible ramp, and shaded terraces and cabanas, providing a comprehensive and accessible aquatic facility for the community.
The Newport Back Bay Aquatics Center is a 9,100 SF, 2-story building at Lower Castaways Park, featuring a 25x50m pool, therapy pool, splash pad, and spectator seating, along with a separate lifeguard and concessions building, cabanas, kayak storage, and beach access, with parking for 189 vehicles and stunning views of Back Bay near the historic “Old Landing” site.
Reminiscent of Tom Sawyer’s Island and Peter Pan’s Neverland, this 2.5-acre playground is truly a kids’ paradise.
Originally built in 1983, Yorba Linda Adventure Playground was due for an upgrade. While a few much-loved features of the site were preserved, such as the fort building area, new amenities were also added including a splash pad, zipline, upgraded water slide, and elevated tree houses with connecting catwalks.
The Bell Gardens Aquatic Center at Ford Park, originally built in 1959, was closed in 2017 due to infrastructure failures, maintenance issues, and non-compliance with updated building codes. RJM Design Group and its consultants were selected to renovate the facility into a state-of-the-art aquatic center, featuring a new pool house, expanded swim programs, a 50-meter competition pool, a therapy pool, a waterslide, shaded seating areas, and enhanced landscaping, more than doubling the aquatic space to better serve the Bell Gardens community.
The City of Gardena’s outdated aquatic center, which included a non-operational pool and adjacent facilities, is being renovated and expanded to include new amenities such as a 25-yard pool, diving bay, and senior center. The goal of the project is to create a community-based, all-inclusive aquatics center that provides a variety of features and opportunities for residents of all ages and demographics, utilizing state-of-the-art design, equipment, and technology to ensure a clean and safe environment.
The original OC Animal Care Facility, built in 1941, was outdated with limited space for equipment and animal housing, making daily operations difficult. In 2018, RJM worked as part of a team to develop a state-of-the-art $35 million dollar animal shelter to serve the cities of Orange County. The new facility was constructed on 10 acres of the former Tustin Marine Air Base property, which was contaminated from years of aviation maintenance. With this in mind, RJM was responsible for designing a suitable landscape and outdoor facilities to house the shelter animals around the 35,000 square foot building. A series of drought tolerant plantings and native plant bioswales were designed to soften the building while also cleansing the runoff from the site. Towering palm trees line the central promenade creating a sense of entry and arrival at the heart of the facility. A combination of natural and synthetic turf play areas allow the adoptable animals an opportunity to interact with the public which helped to find homes for over 100 animals in the opening weekend.
Through the generosity of the Helen McCoy Trust, the McCoy Equestrian and Recreation Center will continue to be a haven for equestrian and community events as well as a window to the rich history of Arabian horse breeding in California for years to come.
Orange County’s newest community, Rancho Mission Viejo, is being built off Ortega Highway in South Orange County. It will be home to a master planned 30-acre sports park unlike any other. Nestled in a natural rolling southern California landscape setting the environmental design of Esencia Sports Park is modeled after ranch industrialized facilities with board form buildings, steel I-beam shade structures, lighting, and landscape.
The Dog Park at the new Encinitas Community Park is approximately 2 acres and is set within an expansive multi-use community park of gardens and ball fields. The dog area has a separate fenced area for first timers, small dogs, and large dogs. The decorative four-rail lodgepole fencing with vinyl-covered chain-link divides each of these areas, complete with their own double entry/exit gate system to minimize pet confrontations and escapes. Intermittent seating areas and shade structures patterned throughout the dog park allows pet owners the opportunity to relax and socialize with one another. Accented paving patterns entice visitors into the park, while the sectioned areas allow for the setup of dog agility elements, and exhibitions.
La Paws Park, Mission Viejo’s new dog park located nearby the intersection of Felipe and La Paz Roads, opened to the jubilant yips and woofs of the city’s canine population and their humans in April 2014. The six-acre park boasts three separate areas for large dogs, small dogs, a single dog area and a gravel parking lot that accommodates up to 42 vehicles. Dogs can run freely on the large, flat expanses of turf within each area or be led by their humans on the decomposed granite paths along the fence. The areas are divided by 4-rail lodgepole fencing, covered with steel mesh. Seating areas and shade structures throughout the park offer venues for socialization and relaxation. The main entry plaza has an open, decomposed granite multi-use area for special events. A walking trail circles the perimeter of the dog park, offering views into the park as well as panoramic vistas of the mountains and naturally vegetated slopes and ravines.
The College Park Dog Park is a 0.8-acre dog recreation area within the larger 69-acre Community Park and Softball Complex. The dog park has shade structures, a pet spa/dog wash area, bench seating, and Bark Park™ dog agility equipment for those pet owners looking to challenge their dogs. A combination of turf and decomposed granite surfacing, with a loop path for owners to walk their pets circles the designated areas for small and large dogs. The dog park is directly adjacent to parking and restroom facilities, and accesses the majority of the community park through the circuitous trail system.
Set to open in Fall 2026, the Ontario Sports Empire is positioned to become the premier venue for major
regional and national tournaments, elevating Ontario as a key sports destination in the United States.
With 190 acres of top-tier athletic facilities, including 20 long fields, 14 youth diamond fields, 8 full-size
diamonds, 4 football/rugby fields and 2 championship baseball fields, the Ontario Sports Empire will be the
largest sports complex of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains.
RJM Design Group is proud to support the Orange County Cemetery District in evaluating the development of the Gypsum Canyon Public Cemetery — a landmark project poised to become a significant addition to Anaheim Hills. Situated on a sprawling 283-acre site just off the 91 Freeway at Gypsum Canyon Road, this unique property offers a serene setting adjacent to thousands of acres of pristine natural open space.
Located in the historic heart of the 477-acre Irvine Regional Park, California’s oldest county park, the 4.5 acre OC Zoo has exhibited live animals in the park since the 1920s. The project team, consisting of OC parks representatives, RJM Design Group, and Torre Design Consortium, Ltd. developed the General Development Plan (GDP) to serve as a mission-based long-range improvement plan ‘blueprint’ to guide the direction of future zoo operations and improvements to the Orange County Zoo (OC Zoo) through the next ten to fifteen years.
