Larchmont Elementary Community Schoolyard

Larchmont Elementary is in the suburbs of Tacoma, Washington, a diverse city with the largest park access gap of any major city in the state. Thirty-one percent of residents can’t access parks or open spaces within a 10-minute walk of home, including most of the nearly 300 students at Larchmont Elementary.

In 2026, those statistics took a turn for the better with the opening of the Larchmont Elementary Community Schoolyard. Tacoma Public Schools, Metro Parks Tacoma, and Trust for Public Land teamed up to reimagine the asphalt space, as a healthy, vibrant, and welcoming resource for students and community members outside of school hours.

Students and neighbors engaged in TPL’s participatory design process, outlining the vision for a new green space with room for outdoor learning, exercise, play, and connection. This resident-led process builds stronger social bonds, a sense of identity and pride, and community empowerment, which benefit communities in far- reaching ways. The transformation of this schoolyard creates a new high-quality park within a 10-minute walk of home for over 4,000 nearby residents and helps Tacoma continue building healthy, climate resilient communities, for generations to come.