Salam Park Project

The Royal Commission for Riyadh City endeavored to make Salam Park a key recreational landmark in the lively heart of Riyadh. On Thul-Qa’dah 14, 1424H (January 6, 2004), King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, who was at this time the Chairman of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, opened the project signaling inauguration of a key metropolitan tourist attraction.

Location

Salam Park is a key natural landmark in central Riyadh near Qasr Al-Hukm District; the place witnessed the birth of the modern Saudi State. This area also embraces Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Mosque, Qasr Al-Hukm Palace and Al-Musmak Fortress, in addition to its role as a main ‎commercial center.

The park lies adjacent to the southern side of Qasr Al-Hukm District. It is also bordered by King Fahd Road in the west, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah Street in the north, Salam Street in the east, and Al-A’sha Street in the south. The 253,000-m²park was established over Salam Farm, which was known for its quality palms. The farm was a private property equipped with some services and a mosque built more than 80 years ago. Due to the farm’s strategic location, and the need for natural green parks to serve the area’s large population, it has been early decided to expropriate this farm to become a public park.

Vision

When the Royal Commission for Riyadh City started working on the project, it developed a vision to establish a family park with multiple environments where visitors can enjoy their time. Therefore, the park was furnished with green areas, utilities and playgrounds for children.

According to the vision developed by the RCRC, the park was provided with spacious green areas and beautiful landscapes to alleviate traffic pollution in the vicinity. Accordingly, the project complemented King Fahd Road project by adding more green areas to its sideways, which, in turn, contributed to reduction of road pollution. The underground water collection system of King Fahd Road, composed of around 1000 wells, is providing continuous and sufficient source of water for irrigation and artificial lake water needs. The project is also a complementary and homogeneous part of the RCRC’s development programs in Qasr Al Hukm District and its other projects like the High Court Headquarter, Civil Defense Headquarter, and Sheikh Muhammad Bin Ibrahim Mosque.

The design focused on taking advantage of the existing environmental and urban elements. Therefore, the palm farm was preserved and even more trees were added to it. The park also utilized the existing buildings, which enjoy unique design that qualifies them to become a cultural center and a venue for many cultural activities. The green areas were designed to grow and survive under the desert climate of Riyadh.

To offer various forms of entertainment, the RCRC equipped the park with a wide range of utilities for water and sand games, in addition to pedestrian walkways, fountains and water formations. Furthermore, the park hosts natural environmental and fungal life zones to ensure exceptional recreational experience.

Park Zones

• The Farm: It forms the northern section of the Park and includes the remaining part of the old palm farm, which received more than one thousand palms. The farm represents a model of traditional farms, where visitors may enjoy palm shades and choose seating places. This makes the park’s emulation of actual daily life more realistic and gives the visitors freedom of movement.
• The Lake: The 34,000-m² lake falls in the heart of the southern section of the park, and its deepest point does not exceed five meters. The lake can hold about 110,000 m³ of water and its bed is provided with layers of paved clay and insulation materials to preserve water. In addition, all necessary measures and precautions were taken to ensure continuous flow of water and prevent growth of insects, mosquitos, and bryophytes. These measures include illuminated fountains, pumps that create continuous water current, and plantations that limit bryophytes growth. The Lake is divided into two sections; one is for boating and the other integrates into the surrounding natural environmental system.
• The Highlands:These slightly sloping highlands are covered by green grass and occupy the central area of the park. The park is surrounded by 10-meter-wide circle pedestrian pathway that extends for one kilometer and connects most zones of the park.
• Nature Reserve:Located at the southeast section of the park, the reserve protects different types of plants, birds and animals. The visitors can tour this zone in company of specialized guides who inform the visitors about the various elements of the reserve.

Park Elements

The integrated and homogeneous elements of the park reveal its smart design that created a unique tourist and recreational attraction with premium services.
The park hosts the following ‎ elements:

• Mosques and prayer areas:The Park is served by two mosques; one lies outside its walls overlooking Salam Street, while the other lies inside the park. The internal mosque is 460m²and up to 5000 people can attend congregational prayers there. The mosque is also equipped with a section for women with a capacity of about 250 person.
• Green areas:The total green area is about 125,000 m²containing about 1,250 palms, 2,000 trees, 87,000 shrubs, 38,000 cover trees and 10,500 water plants.
• Gates:The Park has three main gates; two of them overlook Salam Street and the third overlooks Al-A’sha Street, with two kiosks for selling tickets near each gate.
• Offices:The Park has a number of offices including an office for the RCRC’s administration team, an office for the officials of the operating institution, in addition to an office for members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
• Bathrooms: The Park has 6 bathroom buildings with separate sections for men and women. Each building has four toilets, six sinks for washing hands and cool water dispensers.
• Pedestrian Walkways: The Park is surrounded by a 7-meter-wide circle pedestrian walkway that extends for more than one kilometer, in addition to a number of branch walkways.
• Car Parks: To the south and east of Salam Park, there are car parks that can accommodate about 375 cars.
•  Walls:The Park is surrounded by a 290-cm high intricate iron fence, while the trees inside the park are encircled by a 4.5-km-long (and 90-cm-high) fence.
• Staff: The staff includes individuals of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, civilian security personnel, rescue swimmers around the lake, PR officers who deal with the visitors and serve as guides, in addition to the operation and maintenance team, which includes technicians, farmers and cleaners.

Integrity and Diversity of Services

Provision of integrated services to the visitors required a set of complementary services and activities that can be summed up as follows:

• Kiosks and barrows: The Park has 13 kiosks and barrows that sell fast foods, ice cream, coffee, tea, etc.
• Train and service vehicles: The Park has a train that can carry 60 individuals to make a tour across the park, in addition to wheelchairs and baby pushchairs at all gates.
• Games: The Park has eight free playgrounds for children, a track for Arab horses and another for ponies, boats and different electric games.
• Instructional signboards: The Park has about 200 instructional signboards, in addition to 100 signboards at the parking areas.
• Cleaning services: The Park has about 600 trash containers, out of which 500 are fixed to lampposts.

Salam Park Expansion

The Royal Commission for Riyadh City has launched a new 43,000-m2 expansion of Salam Park, as it became a key recreational attraction in Riyadh and a multipurpose family park with magnificent green areas, public utilities, and children playgrounds.

Salam Park also serves the environment by creating visual surroundings of natural elements that alleviate intensive urbanization and heavy traffic in the vicinity.

The new expansion involves expropriation of some surrounding areas to be annexed to the park, redesigning of some existing elements to be used for other purposes, and expansion of other components of the park.