What You Should Know About Playgrounds and COVID-19
Note: Post updated July 6, 2020 As the nation begins to reopen, parents are understandably concerned about the risks to their children of contracting COVID-19 in parks and playgrounds. It’s a reasonable fear. We know that the coronavirus spreads when people cough, sneeze or just talk. Does this mean children…
Water Play That Lets Kids Be Engineers
There is a new thinking in water play design that has as much in common with the ubiquitous splash park as a neighborhood playground has with an adventure destination. We noted this trend several months ago in discussing the first season of the water play area at Knudsen Park in…
Magical Bridge Is Changing What a Playground Should Be
It was after the birth of her second daughter, developmentally disabled Ava, that Olenka Villarreal discovered how isolating a playground could be. The 34 playgrounds in Palo Alto, California where she lived were all ADA-complaint, but to Villarreal accessibility was not the same as usability. Her quest for a place…
Risky Play and the Study That Fueled a Movement
Meghan Talarowski “I hate taking my kids to the playground.” That’s not something you expect to hear from a person who researches and designs playgrounds for a living. Yet there was Meghan Talarowski on a TEDx stage, flashing a picture of one of those cheerfully colored, boxed-in, plasticized kiddie slides as she…
Find a Hippo, Create a Yarn Monster and Other Creative Ideas For Kids and Parents
With schools closed, parks and playgrounds off limits and group activities banned, parents everywhere are struggling to find new and creative ways to keep their children active. They’re turning to Facebook groups with names like Activities for Children During Isolation, Virtual Activities for Children and Youth and Best Ideas for…
Designer Spotlight: Teri Hendy on the Safety Standards that Transformed U.S. Playgrounds
Peruse the entry for Teri Hendy in the Play and Playground Encyclopedia and try not to be impressed. The Cincinnati-based design and safety consultant has advised the playground industry for almost 30 years and chaired or assisted ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) International subcommittees behind some of the…
Four & One Landscape Architecture Wins Crazy Maze!
Professionals attend the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture for all sorts of reasons. But Christie Passler and Tara Klein, the co-founders of the Houston-based firm 4&1, arrived at this year’s annual meeting and expo in San Diego with a specific purpose in mind: to survey the expo floor for intriguing…
Curvy Blocks Unite Young and Old
In February, we profiled Coryn Kempster and Julia Jamrozik, founders of an emerging multidisciplinary architecture practice whose arresting play structures reconsider the form and context of traditional playground elements. Winners of the League Prize of the Architectural League of New York in 2018, the inventive duo designed a circular swingset…
Crazy Maze Giveaway at 2019 ASLA Conference in San Diego
Crazy Maze – Fun for all ages! It’s time for this year’s annual meeting of landscape architect and allied professionals, and as ASLA President Shawn Kelly notes in the president’s letter, several things have changed. For one, the name. Now known as the 2019 ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture (formerly ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo) the new…
Leadership Profile: Stephanie Perler Garst, executive director of the US Play Coalition, on raising the value of play
For many of us, the opportunity to play—to improvise and imagine, to do something for its sheer enjoyment rather than any practical purpose— may come as the exceptional moment in the day. But Stephanie Perler Garst, executive director of the US Play Coalition, would like to see play become “more…
Outdoor Water Laboratories Gaining Ground
When you think of a water playground, your mind might conjure images of a splash pad. Fountains spraying jets of water. Children running past open-mouthed animals or cartoon characters, laughing and shrieking as they get soaked. And, indeed, this is one version of water play—and not a bad way for…
Ben & Jerry’s Factory Playground Embraces Old and New
The quirky, bohemian vibe of the Ben & Jerry’s brand, and the pastoral location of the company’s main factory on a 48-acre Waterbury, Vermont property in the shadows of the Worcester Mountain Range, are the stuff of dreams for a playground designer. Nearly two decades ago, Jonathan Henke, a former…
