John Zappe
Our Crazy Maze Winners Had Fun
Crazy Maze – Fun for all ages! Pat Stout went to the 2021 ASLA conference to earn CE credits and discover new and innovative products he might include in a project someday. He didn’t expect to also be going home with a Goric Crazy Maze. Not, he joked, with his time playing our virtual maze game. It…
Our ASLA Contest Is Virtual This Year
Crazy Maze – Fun for all ages! Have you seen the crazy route Tom Mroz is taking to this year’s ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture? By the time he arrives in Nashville for the start of the conference on November 19, Tom, president of ASLA, will have run more than 1,000 miles. He’s zigzagged from his home…
Don’t Tell Your Secrets to a Whisper Dish
Outside the Woodinville Library, in the wooded suburbs of Redmond and Seattle, Washington is an Exploring Garden with two parabolic dishes that could be mistaken for radio antennas. But watch the children. By now, years after the dishes were first installed, the kids know what to do. One runs to…
Minnesotans Love Their New Zip Line Park
Baker Park
Photo courtesy Damon Farber When Minnesota’s Three Rivers Park District sketched out the plan for updating an aging playground, there was no question it would include a zip line. 600 kids and their parents made that clear when they were asked for suggestions. Describing the old zip line as a “beloved element of the…
The Griff Slides of Erie: Fast, Curvy and Transformational
LEAF Double slide with waves Even before their official dedication last month, the Griff slides of Erie, Pennsylvania had taken on almost mythic proportions. “This is just huge for the Erie community,” said landscape architect Alex Luddy. “That’s shown by all the community involvement we had.” From a gleam in the eye of Erie developer…
An All-Abilities Park Opens In Wisconsin
“Everybody has the right to play.” It says that in large letters right on the wall at the entrance to Trane All-Abilities Park. It’s a declaration that the people of La Crosse, Wisconsin made real this summer when the 2-acre park, 10 years in the making, was dedicated. Across seven…
Goric’s Towering Pyramid Gives Garvies Point a Signature Playground
Arising on the banks of Long Island’s Hempstead Bay, upon what once was an industrial wasteland, is a new neighborhood. Strung along an inlet and linked by a waterfront promenade, the shops, restaurants and play areas of Garvies Point have already become a popular destination for the residents of Glen…
Jump Into Our Wormhole Slide at Area 15
100 miles from Nevada’s mysterious Area 51 is the mystifying Area 15 of Las Vegas. Inside an almost ordinary building of warehouse proportions is a supermarket like no other in the world. At first look, it’s a perfectly normal market, if more colorful and cleanly stocked than where you shop….
Announcing Goric’s New President
This week we announced that Laura Guscott has been named president of the company. As Goric’s CEO, Laura has led the day to day operations since 2012. Now, with her new responsibilities, she will be fully responsible for setting the strategy and growing Goric’s presence throughout North America. “I am…
Goric’s Guide to Virtual Playground Fundraising
Playground fundraising is never easy. In the best of times, it can mean an endless round of bake sales, car washes, 5ks and benefit dinners. In the midst of our COVID pandemic, when these types of gatherings are risky or prohibited, fundraising may seem almost impossible. The good news is…
Play Everywhere Is Turning Sidewalks and Streets Into Playgrounds
Long before the coronavirus shut down parks and playgrounds, kids were hijacking streets and sidewalks and appropriating vacant lots to create their own play areas. They jumped rope, chalked hopscotch on sidewalks and turned any space large enough to build a cardboard fort into an impromptu battlefield. The nation even…
Games to Play With Others and Still Stay Safe
50 years ago, a ping pong tournament connected China to the world. Today, the table top tennis game is doing the same for families and neighbors. Social distancing may have put a halt to team sports, but games like ping pong, badminton, corn hole toss and tennis are allowing Americans…
