Whether developing small or large spaces, it is the role of the Landscape Architect to incorporate the desires of the client, the development requirements of the users, and the unique characteristics of the site all into a complete package that will positively enhance those that come in contact with it. For it is often outside where relationships develop, imaginations are stretched, and where children do what they universally do best. . .play.

The Client

After Safety, the most important goal of a good play environment is to provide for the variety of abilities children bring to the playground. It is important to take the particular developmental characteristics of each age group into consideration before specifying equipment. Infants Infants need to experience the outdoors in a safe, controlled environment. Play structures should provide sensory/ tactile stimulation surfaces. Caregiver need must be met to allow close supervision, comfort and contact between adult and child. preschoolers Preschoolers "push the envelope." exploring their environment and building their understanding of it. They need safe, appropriate physical challenges, dramatic play, sand and water play, loose parts for construction, open space for inventing games, and tricks with places to ride. The zoning of active/ exercise play contributes to a save and functional play environment Toddlers Toddlers are in constant motion. They need play spaces and equipment that respond to their developing balance skills, their need to climb safely, their developing social skills, and their continuing need to experience variety in all sensory realms School-agers School-agers are less dependent on equipment and more ready organize their own play efforts. The environment must provide upper-body challenges and serve the complex climbers create opportunities for children to join classmates in large group activity.

The Jewish Community Center of San Antonio wanted their playgrounds to safely encourage whole-child development, to support the staff, and to be an inviting, aesthetically pleasing addition to the new campus facilities. The playgrounds were to incorporate child development principles that included a variety of sensory experiences, physical challenges, and social spaces. The client expressed an interest in water, sand, gardens, grass, running space, drama, creative exploration, construction play with loose parts, physically challenging spaces, social places, and quiet places for contemplation.

In addition to complete outdoor environments for children, the playgrounds needed to support the child development workers and staff, with logical organization patterns, low maintenance equipment, and appropriate locations of facilities. Clear views for supervision, outdoor storage facilities, water play in close proximity to water outlets, and equipment that facilitated teacher-child interactions.

The Site

Each of the four playground areas had unique characteristics, limitations, and features. 1) The Infant Courtyard was devoid of vegetation, surrounded on all four sides by solid walls, and had a large drain in the center. Large windows gave view to the playground from the classrooms, and four doors opened into the courtyard from the building. 2) Wrought-iron fencing enclosed the Toddler Area, in which there were several trees. 3) The Preschool Area, located adjacent to the toddler playground, was scattered with multiple trees, gentle slopes, and access gates. 4) The School Age Playground at the Eleanor Kolitz Academy (EKA) on the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus of the San Antonio Jewish Community, was a larger L-shaped area with slopes, concrete patio, accessible perimeter walk, and scattered trees.

The Design

The infant activity maze (for crawlers and up) provide many tactile, auditory, and visual discrimination experiences while allowing maximum supervision by adults. Infants develop spatial awareness as they crawl over, under, around and through various passageways.

The design problem, then, was how to incorporate all the requirements of whole child development into the areas, including space for running and open free play, without over-cramping and over-stimulating the users. Obtaining an accurate and detailed site plan of the existing spaces is often a key to small-space playground design. When looking at playground spaces, sometimes sites that appear large in square footage are actually quite small when all the fixed factors are figured in, so an accurate site plan is critical.

The landscape architectural division of the San Antonio-based firm Ford, Powell & Carson, Inc., guided the project from the master plan phase through construction. They worked in close collaboration with the Boston-based architectural team of Finegold Alexander & Associates, Inc. Grounds for Play, based in Austin, Texas, worked closely with both firms and representatives of the Jewish Community Center to design playground equipment that matched the aesthetic and functional goals of the client.

The preschool playground, for instance, contained scattered trees which divided the larger spaces into small spaces, thereby narrowing the choices for safely locating equipment and usezones. Once the plans are obtained, the Landscape Architect can focus on resolving and identifying existing and necessary circulation patterns, maximize the use of horizontal and vertical space, and select equipment that is flexible in character as to uniquely design and incorporate each piece to be most efficient with space and function. The client must also be involved in the process, since often choices must be made due to space available and budgetary restrictions.

The design process must also lend itself to efficient and accurate communication between all parties involved. A standard design tool, in this case AutoCAD, was used to effectively transfer site considerations and limitations between the campus landscape architect, site engineers, and the playground designer. The playground designs changed frequently as the building changed and unexpected site modifications lead to landscape changes. By using technology to its fullest, the playground design team can be notified of changes, even changes that may seem insignificant, but which may significantly affect the overall design.

Infant Courtyard

The toddler structure has wide low decks and full vertical picket rails over an arched bridge which helps to steady little feet.

The infant courtyard, a place of high visibility within the classroom, displays bright colors and a multitude of events. The circulation patterns dictated much of the design in this case, with multiple doors opening into the space. The courtyard was designed with clear paths smoothly linking each of the individual spaces. A variety of experiences exist within each individual place, including dual octagon gazebos, infant swings, arch bridge, grassy places, and an activity maze.

The Sand Gazebo with spire roof encourages creative, constructive play and includes a sand activity wall for pouring, watching, and experimenting with sand. The 8’ octagon is large enough for several children and a non-splintering seating edge provides spaces to sit and ledges for sand buckets and cups, plus handgrips at the entrance help little feet and wobbling legs. Grassy patches surround the gazebo and a pull-up rail helps steady those just learning to walk. Also surrounded by grass, the Covered Gazebo is a sensory place and shady seating place, complete with gates for limiting toddler access.

Rubberized surfacing, installed by Safety Surfaces, Inc. of Round Rock, Texas, provides resiliency as well as a circulation pattern and play experience in and of itself. Colored circles lead the way for stepping, walking, sitting, socializing, parallel play, gathering, and jumping. These patterns guide a traveler over an arch bridge (hiding the large drain), a passageway between the swings and activity maze. The maze is a sensory experience of space. Kids can crawl through holes, stand in arches, look through bubbles, as well as turn panels and slide beads to develop their fine motor skills. Sound cause-and-effect is experienced through striking chimes and spinning cylinders. The maze even supports the infamous childhood game of peek-a-boo.

Toddler Play

Toddlers change rapidly from the time they enter a toddler program at about 18 months through until they leave at about 3 years. We have all watched toddlers play. . .standing, falling, running, wobbling, excited at the site of a ball and the splash of water. The JCC Toddler play area incorporates all these experiences.

The structure’s play events are age appropriate and varied; not one thing repeats the other in function. Stairs help children master an important developmental skill and the arch bridge gives a sense of height and helps master balance, with full vertical rails for safety and support. A perceptual motor wall, angled for young children encourages eye-hand coordination, while an under-the-deck bench provides a quiet and imaginative place to hide.

Water and art are supported close to the CDC entrances for ease of materials and accessibility to the walk, and are placed away from the active play of tricycles and climbers. Likewise, the octagon sandbox, nestled in the trees, is away from the concrete walks, thereby decreasing slip hazards that occur when sand and concrete meet.

By incorporating dramatic play into the structure, the toddler’s play experiences are enhanced while maximizing space. Play props like the bus panel, spark the toddler’s imagination. Further imagination exploration occurs in the open areas with loose parts. The JCC has a strong, early childhood program and supports the use of loose parts. The director wanted to decrease expense and encourage change and creativity by limiting specific play equipment, and rather provide a structure with the equipment then add items to continually allow the children to create new spaces. The tothouse, for example, can be a store one day and a flower shop or puppet theatre the next.

Pre-School Play

Preschool children need more than just a climbing structure. They need a whole environment that includes sensory, tactile, and dramatic experiences along with creative loose part and open space play.

Preschool children are bundles of energy. Their playground environment, whether large or small, needs to incorporate motor challenges as well as imagination and language building activities. As did the Toddler Playground, the Preschool Playground encourages all the development principles focusing more on a framework for play rather than specifically identifiable items. The large custom designed sand area with sand house encourages sand play while the decks and picnic tables can double as creative spaces, eating places, and open theatre places.

Like the Toddler Playground, the Preschool climber efficiently uses the space by incorporating a variety of elements and not repeating function. The totem climb uses completely different skills and muscle groups from a rung ladder. A dual chute slide is different from a wave slide, both in experience and in use. The overhead rails provide levels of challenge within one apparatus as the children experiment with their strength. Though more complex, this structure also encourages dramatic play, thereby leaving more open space for games with rules, open free play, teacher-initiated play, among other activities. This open space was so important to the client and the children’s play experiences that the client chose early on to eliminate swings in favor of the open space.

School Age Play

The challenge climber offers various challenges for school-age children to reach the deck 70 inches off the safety surfacing. Kids can scamper up the chain wall (pictured) or climb up the Perceptual Motor wall located on the other side. Once kids reach the top, they can slide down the pole or climb down the vertical ladder.

Located at the other end of the education building, the Eleanor Kolitz Academy (EKA) playground incorporates school-age play elements to create a playground that challenges the active, encourages the creative, brings together the social, and provides for those educators who take advantage of outdoor learning.

Existing trees and slopes added complexity to the design of this, the largest playground area. This slope dictated the circulation patterns of an ADA accessible perimeter sidewalk linking the concrete upper patio with the half-court basketball area below. Avoiding the trees, the area was then terraced to accommodate a large structure. A smaller challenge climber and track glide are separate from the large climber to fit the equipment in among the slope and existing trees.

Sand play was included for construction activities and 70 mph wind rated shade structures encourage playground use during hot Texas summers and for outdoor teaching. EKA administrators chose upper-body strength development and games with rules over swing-type play, hence the playground is devoid of swings but rich in upper body activities and supports basketball play. Currently, the EKA is planning to further enhance the group game activities and remove the track glide in favor of a pit for gaga ball, a popular ball game among the students.

Incorporating many elements within one structure adds to the challenge and complexity of the equipment, while efficiently using the available space and maximizing play value. Over 15 different play events create opportunities for the children to take risks and to exercise key muscle groups and motor patterns. All of the step heights allow for accessibility through transfer. In addition, the layout of the structure encourages socialization and interactions with under-the-deck benches, talk tube communication system, and dual slides for side-by-side play and racing. The smaller challenge climber further enhances the three upper-body challenges on the structure by allowing for a greater climb, or “scale” up to a higher platform, with a chain wall climber and higher version of the perceptual motor wall (PM Wall) seen in both the toddler and pre-school areas.

Finally

The San Antonio Jewish Community Center playgrounds demonstrate an efficient use of space, and incorporate site-specific needs with client needs resulting in complete play environments. This design, then, sets the stage for students to experience rich, free play as they develop muscles, learn social and language skills, build relationships, gain confidence, and stretch their imaginations…but shhh, don’t tell them, they think they’re only playing. LASN

[1] Frost, J.L. (1992). Play and Playscapes. Albany, New York: Delmar Publishers.

[2] Consumer Product Safety Commission Pub. No. 325. (1997) Handbook for Public Playground Safety. Washington, DC: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Judi Raymund has a Master's of Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where she specialized in Culture and Behavior in Design. She has been designing play environments with Grounds for Play for over five years.