Playgrounds Gone Wild
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Account: 283300 New York Date: 06/28/2010 Pub Num: 34B2920 Circulation: 408622 City: New York Section/Page: 70 DMA: New York, NY State: NY Page Count: 1 / 3 till Playgrounds Gone rf s Wild k The era of the skill challenging danger embracing starchitect designed play zone has dawned and the city s children are the better for it By Justin Davidson if children could sculpt a landscape to their liking it would probably feature a big shiny mound likethe one adorningthe seven month oldplayground at Union Square This magnificently minimalist stainless steel hump is a tough climb Kids hurl themselves up it legs churning trying to get purchase on the slick skin Once they have conquered its summit they leap roll or slide aS occasionally taking out other children on the way down After years of creating playgrounds that placated alarmists and muffled thrills the Parks Department has rediscovered the joys ofrisk You might see the slippery slope at Union Square W« «¦ as well a slippery slope leading to a vale ofrecklessness and lawsuits And yes parents recently complained that the overheated metal was scalding little palms and thighs—it s since been shaded with a canopy But the dome provides children with something crucial a bracing challenge It issues a license to fall and fail New Yorks playgrounds are getting less predictable more imaginative and more complex making the city a national leader in showing children a good time Other big cities are playing catch up says Darell Hammond CEO of the Washington D C based playground advocacy organization KaBoom Indeed childrens zones are becoming opportunities for design virtuosity Frank Gehry has been cooking up some wavy canopies for a planned playground in Battery Park And next month the citywill inaugurate David Rockwell s Imagination Playground at Burling Slip a cornucopia ofdense blue foam blocks that young builders can use to erect space stations fashion It s Good corrals and practice impromptu teamwork to Bea Kid Beyond those showcase projects the citys attitude toward playis being nudged along by the deft and prolific landscape architects at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates who are pioneering the The top nineteen sites integration ofplay into complex mixtures oflandscape and public space They installed that dome to dig swing scale slide at Union Square and also designed the lushly verdant Teardrop Park in Battery Park City In this and herd hippos secret almost primeval place toddlers splash in artificial rapids or plummet into a sandpit from By Sarah Bernard and an extra tall slide while their grown up escorts monitor them from a lookout platform sprawl on S Jhoanna Robledo bleachers or perch nymphlike on artfully positioned boulders Ifa playground can be a manifesto the riverfront wonderland that Van Valkenburgh designed at Pier 6 in the still developing Brooklyn Bridge Park represents a stirring declaration ofurban glee It will look a little windswept until the fledgling trees provide a canopy of shade But from the minute it opened earlier this month kids swarmed the Tarzan swings the geodesic climbing structure made out ofcords and the long tubular slide that emerges from a wooden steeple The mostlyGerman made equipment still seems esoteric in anAmerican culture obsessedwith liability but the children have spoken and the message is clear Stop fretting and let us have fun NULL RefNo: 762703 Account: 283300 New York Date: 06/28/2010 Pub Num: 34B2920 Circulation: 408622 City: New York Section/Page: 70 DMA: New York, NY State: NY Page Count: 2 / 3 U lfcit i otS wPf |p^ S|ii Heckscher Playground rf~ ¦¦S vJ V 4 j PsS r Ifr 3 Jfe 4 Tqmpkins Square Park ¦¦iwStreal Playground ian structures and two story climb swing sets and sprinklers and a ing helix parents can relax nearby moatlike walkway connected to a Sandbox and Swings Climbing Structures on giant hammocks sun beds cafe massive schist formation called Um Pier 6 Brooklyn Bridge Park Tarr Family Playground tables and chairs manicured patches pire Rock that s begging to be scaled FurmanSt atAtlanticAve^ Central Pajk 100th St ofgrass and recessed wooden bench and summitted Good luck making Brooklyn Heights at CentralPark W es And ifall those are taken you can it home for naptime Nearly everything is scalable in this just lay a towel down onthe rainbow Shortofthe actual beach you wont floor and let the East River breeze recently renovated chunk of Central find another sand and water scape Tire Swings Park including the blue polyhedral wash over you this big and enticing in New York Hester Street Playground metal climber the wooden jungle The newest park on the Brook HesterSL at Chrystie St gym a concrete cone and a curvy lyn waterfront features a 6 000 wall in the sandpit fitted with low Marathon Play Dates square foot plot of gust resistant Seesaw plus suspended tires equals to the ground footholds for tots Heckscher Playground sand interspersed with climbable CentralParkat62ndSL one sweet tire swing The recently tortoises frogs andchickens child revamped playground s twin tires size houses a town well and awa Lounging Spanning 1 8 acres Heckscher is the hang from a tottering metal rod ter spitting boulder There are also most comprehensive playground in so you get not only the adrenaline some fantastic swings—21 of them 47th Rd at Center Blvd the city There are tunnels moats rush of cyclonelike spinning but LongIsland City in fact including planks tires and ramparts and chutes carved out of also the challenge ofbalancingyour circular spinning Tarzan fliers While kids rampage over the Seuss cement separate areas for slides weight against a partner s NULL RefNo: 762703 Account: 283300 New York Date: 06/28/2010 Pub Num: 34B2920 Circulation: 408622 City: New York Section/Page: 70 DMA: New York, NY State: NY Page Count: 3 / 3 Public Space That Feels Private The Village Playground 12 Stuyvesant Town 14th St atAve A The best of Stuy Town s dozen playgrounds is also one ofthe most underutilized in Manhattan No matter the time of day you ll get S O two sizes ofswings a huge climbing structure topped by a clock tower and a bright red wooden fire truck almost entirely to yourself Jungle Gym Printers Park HoeArx nr KJ6SthSt thtBrmx uj O 5 The orange and white multitask ing jungle gym at Printers Park is actually a larger than life version 2 o of a printing press—an homage to ¦ Richard March Hoe the inventor of the lightning press whose es |u tate once stood where the park is a now The graduated steps represent the cylinders the white ramp is a z stand in for a roll ofpaper z I Views People Watching For Daredevils Brooklyn Bridge Park Tompkins Square Park Union Square Playground Rainy Day Play z i I Playground Playground lethStatUmonSq W Enid A Haupt Glass Garden Q Main St atPlymouth St 9thStatAve A 3 thSLatFirstAve o « Dumbo A frisson ofperil shoots through this On any given day you re bound to megapopular playground There s The botanic garden off the lobby Oft The Dumbo park s justifiably popu run into a cross section ofthe city s the controversial metal mound of ofNYUs Rusk Institute is blissfully lar three masted ship bedecked with proverbial melting pot here stiletto course but also steep slides spin offthe radar even though it opened portholes tunnels poles and slides wearers with equallyfashionabletots ning saucers and lots of climbing in 1958 Ifparents only knew about pales in comparison to the vista o fedora topped grandpas snoozingon ropes and bendy poles all designed the 1 700 square foot indoor area o the soaring Brooklyn Bridge to the abench tattooed rockers PTA mem to test kids physical limits with orchids a koi pond and a south the rumbling Manhattan bers and every combination thereof trove of chatty tropical birds Two Bridge to the north and a steady weeks ago a new element arrived II stream of barges and tugboats slic Oldie But Goodie a freestanding pentatonic chime ing through the river in the middle Urban Oasis Hippo Playground that can be played with mallets Teardrop Park Riverside Parkat WSlstSt River Ten nr Warren St O u Sprinklers Z O Arguably the most popular play Hide and Seek Spot =3 Playground at Pier 51 Ignore the Battery Park City condos ground on the Upper West Side Ancient Playground HoratioSt atHudson River looming overhead and focus instead Hippo Playground is beloved for FifthAiK atSSthSt P ¦ o on the lush plantings bluestone wall good reason It s loaded with swings u There are other equally cool water gushing with water seating areas one set for toddlers another for The ramparts pyramids chutes parks in the city but only this one sculpted out of rock and fourteen school age kids six climbing ap and tunnels at this newly spiffed n has the Hudson River as a backdrop foot tall slide that evokes the natural paratuses a soon to be refurbished up Egyptian themed playground A tall sprinkler tree on the east end slope ofa mountainside You ll think sandbox shady honey locust trees make for one atmospheric game of makes for an all day rainstorm you ve magically day tripped to the and best ofall two herds ofmount hide and seek It helps that real o while a splashable brook wends its Hudson Valley which provided the able hippo sculptures deal King Tut artifacts are just a a h way past the sandpit play structures inspiration for the design block away at the Met m O drinking fountains and shaded seat O I ing areas Skate Park i For Kids of All Pier 62 Fountain Z h Abilities 22nd St at HudsonRirxr Slide Washington Square Park FifthAve at Washington So N Billy Johnson Playground W 7OthSt nr AmsterdamAve Whether you skateboard