Florence Joyner Olympiad Park is a 22-acre park dedicated to Florence Griffith Joyner in her hometown of Mission Viejo, CA. The park features a bronze statue of "Flo-Jo" winning the 100 meters at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

The design process embraced the Olympic spirit in its details, volunteer efforts, community input and support. The design team contacted the United State Olympic Team to determine the limitations and use of Olympic symbols. After lengthy negotiations the team developed a series of design elements including the incorporation of the Olympic Rings into the site fencing, original light fixtures within the tot lot area from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, display plaques, etc.

In June of 1998 Florence Joyner, a resident of Mission Viejo, suddenly passed away. The community's already intense support of the park and its famous athletes took a solemn shift towards honoring this great Mission Viejo Olympic figure. The residents lobbied the City Council and the park's name officially became Florence Joyner Olympiad Park.

The Olympic Gardens are a place to relax, unwind, and venture into a walking garden with a European flair. This garden haven, like the Olympic Rings, includes five different garden settings each designed to evoke a different response all connected by the dry stream running along the base of the slope. The first area is the garden entry with a large wood shelter and a playful tulip fence incorporating the Olympic Rings. After crossing over the wooden bridges, a side path leads to a brass and bronze sundial garden and then onto the community rose garden complete with the perfect red rose "Olympiad" and an English styled stone pedestal and pot. The fourth setting is the aromatic herb garden with a Moorish stone pot and lemon and orange trees and finally the walled garden room. A garden with a stone waterfall wall, benches, chairs and coffee tables ideal for close conversation, taking a nap, or reading the paper. The flagstone creek meanders throughthe garden room leading into the dry stream creek.

The children's Tot Lot and Picnic Area is designed to emulate an Olympic Village complete with a series of playhouses, phone booths, a docked ship, a lookout tree house over the village, and a rock like climbing structure. Each of these elements are surrounded by a waterfall of rubberized water that comes from the rock outcropping at the top of the village and meanders through the shoreline. The tot lot was carefully designed to meet the latest playground safety guidelines without the look of a rubberized ramped racecourse. The village is complete with a large shelter that can accommodate 100 people, restroom facilities, and a small food preparation counter and sink. The restrooms are designed with an abundance of natural light from skylights and concealed grills to promote natural ventilation.

Operation and maintenance include landscape that is exclusively irrigated with reclaimed water and uses a combination of traditional irrigation practices as well as low flow drip irrigation within the garden areas. The selection of plant materials creates a kaleidoscope of colors and were chosen for their ease of maintenance, including limited pruning and low water requirements, without the appearance of a dry sparse landscape. The landscape has a collection of over 22,000 shrubs. The plants were carefully placed and grouped into similar growing conditions.

The turf fields have been designed for active recreation including soccer and Little League. The fields were engineered with cross slopes meeting industry standards. These fields also have a complete subterranean drainage manifold system. This system allows rainwater to be removed from the fields, eliminates standing water and allows the fields to be played on sooner after each storm.

This 22 acre parcel is topographically similar to much of Mission Viejo and required extensive grading to develop flat spaces large enough for fields, parking lots, an other recreational uses. A bi-product from this effort is the significant hills surrounding the park. These hills generate substantial runoff during rainstorms, which created the need for a drainage collection system. The dry streambeds and catch basins installed at the base of the slopes collect the water during an intensive rainfall and daily during the ongoing irrigation efforts while adding an attractive unifying design element throughout the park.

Received Award of Excellence 2000 from the California Park and Recreation Society for being the best-designed and best-planned new park facility in the state.