Please Explain: Playgrounds
Friday, May 11, 2007
Are contemporary playgrounds too safe? Are innovative new play spaces needed to help engage children, and challenge them to grow and explore? On today’s Please Explain, we examine the history of playgrounds, and the current issues facing their planning and construction. Susan G. Solomon, the author of American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space, and Roger A. Hart, a psychologist from the Children's Environments Research Group at the Graduate Center of CUNY, discuss how playgrounds affect community and child development. And they tell us about their work on the Imagination Playground, planned for the South Street Seaport. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions.
American Playgrounds is available for purchase at amazon.com
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Comments [5]
Something we should consider
Something we should consider
The green wood, or womanized lumber, which is commonly used outdoors, is quite poisionous. The data sheets for workers would make you quite afraid to use it.
THe Riverbank State Park , built in Harlem
on top of a sewage treatment plant over hte
Hudson River as a concession to the commy is a
fantastic place for kids to go -- track, basketball courts, ice rink, restaurant/jazz, playing fields, etc.
Are there other parks built over municipal facilities or to mitigate the problems of building NIMBY projects in especially poorer neighborhoods?
Having grown up in So. California in the late 60s-70s, I remember extensive adventure playgrounds. My hometown, Buena Park (home of Knott's Berry Farm) had "Construction Park" where contractors could donate their surplus building materials. There was a minimum age and required (brief) safety primer and then the kids were released with minimal supervision to build anything deemed "safe".
Since that time, I have lived throughout California, Texas, and now, Brooklyn. One thing that impressed my wife and I are the quality of the playground equipment found in many of NYC's Housing Projects playgrounds. While rather generic from one location to another, they eclipse many found in other communities across the country.
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