How to Get Renovation Right: A Case Study of the Healy Playground in Boston
In nearly any playground renovation, one of the most complex and overlooked challenges landscape architecture firms and municipal departments face is siting and configuring the project to serve the community’s interests. Often a successful project is one that cleverly toes a line between historical and regulatory constraints and the stakeholders’…
Ping Pong Moves Into Parks and Playgrounds
Placing a ping pong table in a public park is a social act; it creates a venue for interaction, a place where strangers can rub elbows, chat, and engage in friendly competition. In an urban setting, in particular, a ping pong table can spark conversation and friendships among people, who…
Restoration of a New Deal-Era Gem in Central Park: A Case Study of Toll Family Playground
In the era of the New Deal, federally sponsored public works projects led to the creation of parkways, beaches, zoos, golf courses, and hundreds of playgrounds in New York City. At the center of this work was Robert Moses, chairmen of the New York Park Association’s Metropolitan Conference on Parks,…
Modern Offices Borrow a Page from Playgrounds
Wellbeing is the word echoing through the boardrooms of Fortune 100 companies vying to recruit and retain top talent. From the rock climbing wall at Google’s New York headquarters to Red Bull’s reception area that transforms into after-work bar, innovative office designs are radically transforming workplaces and the way workers…
Zorlu Center in Istanbul,Turkey: A Case Study
This week we feature a guest blog from the Dutch design firm Carve, a case study in which the authors describe the design of a challenging, architecturally stunning playground developed in Istanbul, Turkey in collaboration with London-based WATG landscape architects. We’re enamored with the two stacked cubic towers—gorgeous structures that…
Designer Profile: Noa Haim and Collective Paper Aesthetics
The journey of Dutch designer Noa Haim into paper structure began in 2008 at the London Festival of Architecture, where she developed a participatory installation as part of her graduate work as an architecture student at the Berlage Institute. With the assistance of the FabLab Den Haag and volunteer teams…
Meet the Vertical Playground: The Wallholla
Verticality has been an architectural obsession since the time of the first skyscrapers in the late nineteenth century. But, at playgrounds, the idea of building lofty, multi-story structures on a small footprint is relatively young. Of course, with a higher percentage of the population dwelling in cities than ever before,…
Playgrounds of Culture and Place
Several weeks ago, we caught up with Angelica Rockquemore for a designer profile. Our conversation was illuminating and brought to light an emerging area of interest in the field: how parks and playspaces can serve to deepen cultural and environmental understanding and lay the foundation for the development of broader…
Playgrounds Spin into the Next Generation
Ever tried twirling on a playground spinner as an adult? Did it make your stomach turn? It’s not uncommon. When adults spin, the centrifugal motion can make them feel dizzy and uncomfortable, even sick. But spatial disorientation is good for our brain in appropriate doses, which is why sitting at…
Designer Profile: Native Hawaiian Angelica Rockquemore on the ASLA National Diversity Summit and Natural Learning Spaces
Angelica Rockquemore is a bit of a whiz kid. A landscape designer and planner at Honolulu-based HHF Planners, the Fulbright Fellow’s decorated education and professional career includes research and planning of Japanese gardens in Kyoto, design of outdoor play areas in Maori language immersion preschools, neighborhood concept development in Portland,…
2018 ASLA Diversity Summit Recruits New Voices
Landscape architecture is in need of more diversity. While professionals of color are designing outdoor spaces and green infrastructure responsive to their communities – from parks and playgrounds to campuses and residential properties – the demographics of the profession fail to reflect those of the wider population. As reported in…
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…
