Year: 2018
Skating Rinks Are Breathing New Life into Parks
Which events you watch in the winter Olympics has a lot to do with where you live. A story published just last week in the New York Times chronicles these national preferences along with the possible cultural and social reasons behind them. In many parts of the world, including the…
4 Parenting Tips to Encourage Healthy Risk-Taking at Playgrounds
“Careful, you’ll fall!” Hearing another parent shout this or something similar to his child when she’s scrambling up a climbing frame can make bystanders stop in their tracks. This parent, though likely well-intentioned, may be undermining his child’s healthy sense of exploration and could even scare her into letting go…
Is Ping Pong Becoming the Coolest Sport in The Country?
Hipsters have had their hands in dozens of comeback business trends: vinyl records, food trucks, boxing clubs, boutique cupcakes, arcade bars. The latest, it seems, is table tennis. Given a major lift when actress Susan Sarandon opened the ping pong bar and venue SPiN in New York, the Olympic sport…
Designer Profile: Nathan Elliott, Principal at the Office of James Burnett on Persistence in Playground Design
Nathan Elliott didn’t always follow his creative instincts. The principal with the Office of James Burnett in Solana Beach, California, says he went into computer science at Louisiana State University on the model of his brother, but “flubbed out” of the weeder courses. His girlfriend was enrolled in LSU’s landscape…
The 7 Best Indoor Playgrounds to Beat the Winter Blues
When the temperature drops to single digits and below, as it did here in Chicago last week, the bite of winter can be too severe for children to play outside. For parents, that can mean struggling with cabin fever and restless kids. Fortunately, indoor play spaces are becoming more and…
Benefits of Outdoor Activities for Children with ADHD
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know we’ve touched on ADHD before. It’s important, of course, as a matter of public health and wellness. But it’s also a design concern of growing interest. More and more landscape architects, playground designers, and manufacturers are recognizing their role in…
