A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to put together my first proposal from “scratch”. Most proposals are full of profile sheets of former projects and resumes, so it was mostly a lot of pulling things from other locations and piecing it all together. But some things I had to make up from a blank page and a few projects I had to use the template to write up because they hadn’t been done yet. As we were looking for projects that would show how well we do certain things, one topic was playgrounds. I told my boss my kids loved a playground the firm designed in Cranberry. His response: “I love that one, too, but it’s too traditional.”
Traditional. I had to stop to think about that because, to me, the park wasn’t very traditional at all. I mean, how many parks have you seen with a pirate ship to play on? But “traditional” is a word that is hard to define. What I call “traditional” someone else doesn’t. Playgrounds I call “traditional” have slides, swings, seesaws, monkey bars and a merry-go-round all in various locations around the play area. That’s what I grew up with. My “baby” brother who is 15 years younger than me probably considers a playground “traditional” if it is a huge wooden maze-like thing. Why? Because those are the kinds of playgrounds he frequented as a kid. So, what makes a playground “traditional”?
In the realm of playground design, which the firm I work for does quite a bit of work in, “traditional” is considered a play area with swings, monkey bars, slides and seesaws or other pieces of equipment separated throughout an area. More like what I grew up with, only now you’ll find pieces of equipment you can’t figure out what to do with. So, yes, the playground in Cranberry is “traditional” even though it doesn’t have slides (except one coming off the pirate ship) or monkey bars. It does have swings, some odd looking things that you sit in and spin and 21stcentury equivalents of a merry-go-round and seesaws as well as some odd, theme based pieces to go along with the baseball, pirate theme. (If you haven’t figured it out, the Pittsburgh Pirates donated the money to build the play area that weaves between several baseball fields for kids. Hence, the baseball and pirate theme.) Despite those facts, I still have trouble calling that playground “traditional” when the all-time favorite for my kids was the pirate ship, complete with steering wheel and plank to jump from. I would have loved one of those as a kid! Especially since Katey and I spent hours fighting the pirates from Swiss Family Robinsonin our backyard.
Working for landscape architects and people who are park professionals (as well as one playground safety inspector), I find the way I view playgrounds has changed considerably over the past few years. I am certainly far from being an expert, but I have read several articles and looked over proposals focused on playgrounds to know about natural play spaces, traditional play areas and play scopes focused on learning. It’s really rather astounding how many ideas and even thesis have been written about playgrounds and kids at play. But in a world where kids spend a majority of their time in front of video games, kids now have to be taught and encouraged to simply…well, play. Hence people who have whole careers focused on play.
I have discovered that when I enter a new play area, I survey it from a designing perspective. Not as an expert, of course, but from the little I know I can pick out things that were well thought out versus tossed together by someone who doesn’t specialize in playgrounds. I also watch what the kids gravitate towards and wonder if the designer would be surprised or already knew that would be the highlight of the area. Around here, I don’t know who designed anything. Back in Pittsburgh, I knew which play areas my co-workers had worked on and loved to observe what my kids thought of those playgrounds. Funny enough, they don’t gravitate towards the ones we highlight in our proposals. The Clock Tower play area in Cranberry was fun enough, but it frustrated both of them that they were limited to the areas designed towards their age groups. When they were very small, they rarely went on the swings that were too far from the other fun things. And I think the size and space itself intimidated them a bit. I think it did a lot of kids for it often seemed kids roamed aimlessly around. The Out of the Park play area, however, was always the one they wanted to go to. For one, the pirate ship. Two, plenty of things they could enjoy and still grow into. And lots of space to run around. Never did I see a kid that appeared aimless.
My conclusion? “Traditional” might not look good on paper. But kids really do love it!
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