The Welcome Waters

The Welcome Waters would transform the existing fish pond in front of the Welcome Center from a successful prototype into a permanent landscape feature that helps shape the experience of arriving at The Space community center. The current lined pond has demonstrated that water can bring life, beauty, and a sense of peace to this central area of the property. The next phase would replace the temporary pond with a thoughtfully designed concrete pond containing fish, aquatic plants, a small waterfall, and eventually the other creatures that naturally find their way into a healthy outdoor environment. Stepping stones through the center would create a direct pathway from the parking area to the front door of the Welcome Center, allowing visitors to literally cross the water as they enter.

Above the pond, a small waterfall and shallow stream would meander through the landscape before appearing to empty into the fish pond below. Visually, the stream and pond would feel like one continuous body of water, but beneath the surface they would operate as two separate systems. A concealed dividing wall and separate circulation system would allow the upper stream to be maintained as clean, treated water appropriate for children to enter and play in, while protecting the natural ecosystem of the fish pond. The stream could include stones, small pools, channels, changes in elevation, and other features that invite children to touch, redirect, dam, dig, splash, and explore moving water.

This upper stream would create a particularly valuable environment for younger children. Rather than being another traditional playground, it would be a place for messy play, sensory exploration, curiosity, and discovery. Thrive and other programs serving preschool and early-elementary children could use the area for intentional activities, while families and community events could use it more informally. Children could experiment with mud, rocks, leaves, water, containers, channels, and natural materials—learning through their bodies and senses while adults have an environment designed to make that kind of exploration possible. The goal is not to keep children clean, but to give them an appropriate place to get wonderfully messy.

The Welcome Waters would also express something important about the larger vision of The Space community center. The same place can offer quiet to one person, play to another, beauty to someone arriving for the first time, and a therapeutic or developmental environment to a partner program. It does not need to belong to only one ministry or serve only one purpose. By creating a beautiful shared environment and then inviting partners, families, children, and the surrounding community to discover different ways of using it, the project becomes another example of how The Space can create places that support whole-person health, relationship, belonging, curiosity, and flourishing. The water itself becomes part of the welcome—a living feature that invites people not simply to pass through the property, but to slow down, cross over, touch, explore, and stay awhile.

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