Designing the Parks is a partnership among eight diverse organizations committed to sustaining healthy, vibrant public parks as a core of civic life. Embodied in this vision is a framework for planning and designing public parks that are innovative, responsive, respectful, sustainable and inclusive. This structure is composed of six guiding principles which were developed through a dynamic interactive process. The partners are now facilitating a range of activities to refine and test the principles and ultimately fold them into mainstream planning, design and management of public parks.

The Designing the Parks partnership: the National Park Service, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, University of Virginia, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Institute at the Golden Gate, George Wright Society, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Van Alen Institute.