Grand Opening: City of Delano Larry Itliong Unity Park
Larry Itliong Unity Park: Grand Opening!
Saturday May 11th was the official grand opening of the City of Delano’s new Larry Itliong Unity Park!
This seven-acre park features a playground, basketball court, event space, outdoor amphitheater, and new aquatic center. It was designed to facilitate community gatherings & outdoor play, as well as pay homage to the history of the Delano community. COAR is proud to have worked with the City of Delano and Landscape Architect RHAA to bring the park design to life.
The new community park is named after Larry Itliong, a Filipino American labor organizer and civil rights activist. The new park honors the contributions of Larry Itliong and the Delano Manongs.
The Grand Opening celebration was centered around the new Manong Amphitheater, where speakers paid tribute to the life of Larry Itliong and the legacy of the Delano Manongs. Exhibits by the Filipino American National Historical Society Museum were on display, local vendors and food trucks filled the park, and local groups performed songs, dances, martial arts demonstrations, and more.
“I hope the park can serve for many decades in the same way I saw it at the grand opening,” COAR Project Manager Ryan Walker said. “The playground full of kids playing, native plants and trees shading many areas and bringing additional shading once they mature over time. The amphitheater and mounded grass area were a big hit as well.”
A project in progress since 2018, we were excited to see the completed park filled with members of the community, including the Mayor of Delano, Joe Alindajao.
“I’m standing on this beautiful structure, appropriately named the Manong Amphitheater, a metaphor for many of our lives because many of us stand on the shoulders and foundation made by our Manongs and our Manangs,” Alindajao said in his Grand Opening speech.
Now open, the park will continue to be a gathering space for community markets, events, plays, concerts, and more.
“The impact of today for us, it would be like you and me talking about going to the moon,” said Board President of the Filipino American National Historical Society Museum, Erwin Mina. “We never thought that would happen, we just lived it. We lived a really tough life but with this park, it’s really symbolic of the progress that the children of the Manongs have made.”
The Delano Regional Aquatic Center.
Located within the Larry Itliong Unity Park is the new Delano Regional Aquatic Center – which is home to the City of Delano’s first community pool. The Grand Opening for the pool will follow closely behind the park, scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend, just in time for the summer season!
The facility will be focused on not only providing water recreation, but water safety. Throughout the entire design process, that remained the primary goal of the project: providing a fun and safe place for users of all ages and abilities to be able to come enjoy the water.
“We’re really excited to help provide this new facility for the youth of the community, and people of all ages, to use,” Principal Matt Kingdon said. “More importantly, it is going to create an opportunity to teach kids how to swim, teach water safety, and make sure we have a safer community overall.”
Alongside the pool, the Aquatic Center features an instruction area, spray and wading pools for all age groups, private rental cabanas, lounge seating, and an iconic pool house building which houses all the necessary program elements for the facility.
Project Manager Ryan Walker has been working on the facility since 2018, making frequent visits to the park and aquatic center as the design was brought to life. The facility features numerous custom design elements that highlight the vibrance of the Delano community.
“We looked around at the community and saw a lot of colorful buildings, and we wanted to kind of play off of that a bit,” Ryan said. “We also have quite a few custom design elements throughout – benches, large canopies, and a few others, signage and interesting features that are also colorful.”
Stay tuned to learn more!
We couldn’t be more excited to see the new pool unveiled and in use, offering a cool oasis during the summer months. Stay tuned to learn more about the Larry Itliong Unity Park and Delano Aquatic Center by following us on Instagram and LinkedIn!