Designer Spotlight
Designer Spotlight: Hitchcock Design Group
One of my favorite places to go for a walk is the Spruce Plot at the Morton Arboretum, outside Chicago. There is a perceptible hush and temperature drop on entering the forest, as though you’ve been transported to another time and place. A grid of towering spruces crowds out the…
Designer Spotlight: Horst Henke – The Man Who Brought Wood To North American Playgrounds
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know the name Rick Henke. Raised in Kiel Germany, Henke immigrated to the US in the 1970s and founded the Goric Marketing Group USA in 1994. With his background in engineering and his involvement in developing playground safety standards in Canada,…
Designer Spotlight – H Nyunny Kim of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
“Who needs to escape the city when you can walk down the street or take the F train to Jay Street or the No. 22 to Clark Street or the B63 bus that goes right to Pier 6 at Atlantic Avenue — and see nature in the city.” That’s Anne…
Designer Spotlight – Ilisa Goldman and the Power of Our Natural World
Reclaiming Community Spaces Creates Healthier Environments for us All This past November, Rooted in Place, the design firm founded by Ilisa Goldman,orchestrated a 4 day community build event to transform a parking lot just outside ARTS (a local arts based youth center) into an, ‘arts-dedicated community space for art-making, performing…
Designer Spotlight – Mitch Ryerson’s Woodworking and the Art of Play
Mitch Ryerson | Image via ryersondesign.com The Original Jungle Gym was a Tree, and Mitch Ryerson Knows How to Use Them Creating a Playground Tree | The Esplanade Association via YouTube.com When explored by the hands of a skilled artist, playfulness itself becomes an expressive language. At its best, the work of a well-seasoned woodworker, designer, and artist such…
Designer Spotlight – Susan Goltsman and the Emergence of Inclusive Design
How Creating Environments that Support Everyone’s Potential Became Mainstream Policy The world is filled with unsung heroes and Susan Goltsman is certainly one of them. As a founding principal of the design firm Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman (MIG), Ms. Goltsman has worked tirelessly to move the idea that, “…every individual has…
The Touch and Feel of Play in Toshiko MacAdam’s Textile Playgrounds
Structures Made from Nets of Rope Inspire in This Designer’s Wonderfully Crocheted Playscapes Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam video via PlayArt11 on YouTube.com Toshiko MacAdam was already an accomplished artist in the Fibre Arts movement long before she began exploring the possibilities of creating textile playscapes. In fact, she was exhibiting a…
Limitless Fun, The Impact of Rick Henke’s Approach to Playground Creation
Playgrounds Were Nothing New, Until Goric’s Founder Helped Change the Game It all comes down to perspective. Children explore a world much different than the ones inhabited by adults. Everything is bigger and harder to reach. As a child, it can often seem that adults spend their time telling you what not to…
The Playground Equipment Designs of Peter Heuken
The German Playground Designer Peter Heuken traces the beginnings of his world-renowned work to the age of five. That’s when he received his first real tool kit. It is not usually recommended to give sharp blades and other adult tools to someone barely past the toddler stage of life. Luckily, Mr. Heuken was…
Playground Designer Spotlight: Frank Gehry
Born Ephraim Owen Goldberg, architect Frank Gehry has brought his unique style of playfulness and whimsy to every project he’s been a part of. Whether it’s designing watches for Fossil or the artistic Fondation Louis Vuitton Center in Paris, his dramatic style is completely evident in each one of his structures. Not…
From Skater to Schematics: How Elger Blitz Turned His Hobby Into Worldwide Success
Photo via Yohan Creemers It didn’t take much digging to find that world premiere playground designer and design lecturer Elger Blitz has been making waves for over 25 years. From his humble beginnings on the gritty streets of Amsterdam, Blitz learned to appreciate and manipulate the world around him into being a place where people of…
