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CLEMYJONTRI Focuses on Abilities
CLEMYJONTRI was designed to blur the line between physically able and physically challenged children, thus giving the physically challenged child the ability to succeed. The playground opened in October 2006; within the first 25 days, nearly 12,000 kids and parents visited. The playground now hosts about 200,000 visitors a year.
The Donor: Mrs. Adele Lebowitz CLEMYJONTRI has become part of the fabric of the Washington, D.C. area. The park is the dream of Mrs. Adele Lebowitz, who generously donated the 18-acre property for the park. She had a vision for the playground and park. She wanted a playground that inspired children to use their imagination, to challenge them to learn and, of course, just to have fun.
Editor’s note: Adele Lebowitz is the widow of Mortimer Lebowitz, who founded the Morton’s department store chain in the Washington, D.C. area in 1933. In the 1930s and 40s, segregation was very much a part of D.C. Mr. Lebowitz was one of the first to fully integrate his stores, customers and staff. Mrs. Lebowitz and her husband sponsored a local children’s television program in the 1950s, The Pick Temple Show.
What’s that Name? The name of the playground, CLEMYJONTRI (Clem-mee-JOHN-tree), is an amalgam of the names of the Lebowitz children: Carolyn, Emily, John and Katrina. Mrs. Lebowitz stipulated the park incorporate a playground for disabled children, a picnic shelter and a carousel. The 18.5-acre park located 11.5 miles from D.C. in McLean, Va. includes a two-acre playground, a carousel, a picnic shelter and restrooms. Fairfax County Park Authority managed the design team and construction. It also manages the park and playground.
The American with Disabilities Act, which marked its 20th anniversary in July 2010, has opened many doors by establishing accessibility standards. However, many children and adults fall outside these standards. Parents’ expectations go beyond ADA; for them, it is quality of life. CLEMYJONTRI had the chance to be more than ADA compliant, it had the chance to level the playing field for all children of all abilities and be truly inclusionary for all levels of development and ability.
The Landscape Architect G.E. Fielder & Associates (GEF) of Columbia, Md. developed the concept plan, master plan and the playground design, creating many new pieces of equipment and play ideas. GEF started with a site visit and a series of site overlays including vegetation, views, vistas, geology, soils, wetland, buildings, historic scenic easement and the approach for sustainable design. The analysis revealed a strong axial relationship anchored by the historic house. The axes were the pathways and lanes leading to gardens, fields, buildings and private recreation areas, or “rooms,” as landscape architects call them. The development of the conceptual site plan and playground design played on the established room theme to preserve the mature trees and tree-lined drive. The room concept addressed the relationships being created by playground, carousel, picnic shelter, office, restrooms, storage, storm water management and parking.
Order and Organization Order and organization are part of the key to the playground and the sense of place and desired learning outcomes for children with disabilities. Each room in the playground is accessible from a point on the axis, which leads to the accessible carousel at the center of all the activity. The rooms lead to either the carousel or a directional walk on the outer edge. Color is a design element throughout CLEMYJONTRI to stimulate the senses and enhance the learning experience. The room theme in the site plan was emphasized by surrounding each proposed room in green, preserving vegetation or additional plantings. The playground is a green oasis, surrounded by preserved woodlands and plantings of shade, flowering and evergreen trees. Vegetation that attracts bees or which has a high pollen count is minimized.
Rest and Quiet Play Some disabilities leave children overwhelmed and unable to cope with constant activity. Intentional to the playground design are areas for rest and quiet play. The children need some stimulation, but they also need to rest and regroup. Children face many learning, social and physical challenges; often these are combined. Play is a great opportunity to help children and their families overcome these challenges.
The rooms in the playground were created with each room incorporating its own theme and expected outcomes. Creation of the rooms makes the play experience manageable for the child and the adult and lends them a sense of organization, place and reinforces the fun. When children experience success in play they know they can succeed in life.
The Rooms The four rooms for the CLEMYJONTRI playground are Rainbow, Schoolhouse, Movin’ and Grovin’, and Fitness and Fun.
Rainbow Room The Rainbow Room features swings and is brought together by a rainbow. Autism is a spectrum disorder. That means that children with autism can have very different symptoms. They can, for instance, be drawn to a color, or repelled by a color. The rainbow room provides an opportunity to see, touch and embrace an element of nature. The rainbow is translated into an understandable series of colors: ROY G. BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.) The room is filled with all kinds of equipment with swinging or swaying motion. This repetitive use of swinging and swaying equipment and color is not only fun, but is a link between the motion of swinging and the object. Colors of the rainbow are reinforced as the colors of the equipment change with the color of the soft surface. The colors of the rainbow are explained in a picture sign with Braille, sign language and English. The rainbow arches and the rainbow sign are original designs.
Schoolhouse The Schoolhouse picks up the color theme of the Rainbow Room and presents the primary and secondary colors in a color wheel. The upright of the schoolhouse includes six colors and adds black and white, the presence and lack of color. They are also in metric and English measurements. The colors in the Rainbow Room are repeated in the Schoolhouse to prompt color recognition, memory development and associations, all a principle inherit in repetitive learning. The learning turns to fun with the alphabet, counting to 100 and a multi-solution maze with moving panels. The maze and Schoolhouse are original to the playground.
Movin’ and Groovin’ Movin’ and Groovin’ is all about transportation. It reinforces the metric and English measurements learned at the Schoolhouse and the movement of the maze.
The wheel chair drag strip includes a “start tree” that changes from color, to numbers to pictures.
There is a wheel chair accessible helicopter on an emergency launch pad by the drag strip.
A dolphin jumps in the ocean if you catch the shadow play at the right time of day.
A board contains fun and serious transportation facts: When was the first flight? How fast can a turtle run? The answer the second question: very slow. Many of the elements are original designs for CLEMYJONRI.
Fitness and Fun Fitness and Fun is devoted to physical development, with areas for upper body strengthening and balance. Not finding a great series of balance activities, they were created. Examples include cutting of a bench and putting handrails beside it to curved beams. An “energy burner” tops off the Fitness and Fun room.
A carousel with 14 animals and three chariots sits at the center of the park, one of the elements requested by the park?EUR??,,????'?????<
Internal roadways bring it all together, teaching direction, left and right, crosswalks, one way and roundabout travel, all with views of trees and open space. There is a car and bus drop off and pick-up entrance, and plenty of handicap accessible parking.
The mechanical requirements that support this playground are hidden. The entire soft surface is porous, allowing runoff to flow through it. The runoff is carried off through a system of drains to a stormwater management facility. The SWM facility was an integral part of the design and of the green oasis.
CLEMYJONTRI has gotten some great coverage on air and in print including NBC Nightly News, Fox Morning News, Washington Post, Newsweek, Parks and Recreation and was listed as one of “10 Unusual Playgrounds from around the World.”
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CLEMYJONTRI Park Team
Fairfax, Va. County Park Authority
Donor/Benefactor: Mrs. Adele Lebowitz
Joe Sicenavage, (Concept & Master Plan) Mark Holsteen, ASLA (Construction Documents) Kelly Davis Kirk Holley
Friends of Clemyjontri Park, McLean, Va. Daniel and Julie Clemente (Chairperson)
Fairfax County Park Foundation Robert Brennan
G. E. Fielder & Associates, Chartered Columbia, Md. Grace Fielder, ASLA, AICP, CPSI, RLA, President (Project Landscape Architect) Tolly Peuleche Shawn Clotworthy Mike Ratajski Kathleen Dahill, RLA, CPSI
Studio 3 Architects, P.C., McLean, Va. Edward Climo Jr., RA, Vice President, Project Architect
Miller, Beam & Paganelli, Inc., Reston, Va. Kevin Miller (President, Acoustician) Blair Parker (Senior Consultant)
Paciulli, Simmons & Associates, Ltd., Fairfax, Va. Tod Kolankiewicz, P.E., Assoc. Partner-Director, Public Sector Projects, Project Engineer
Mechanical, Plumbing & Electrical Summit Engineers, Inc., Arlington, Va. Jeff Delo (Chief Electrical Engineer) Ken Cantwell (Chief Mechanical Engineer) Greg Hayes (Chief Plumbing Engineer)
Elliott LeBoeuf & Associates, Inc., Springfield, Va. Roger LeBoeuf, Principal Structural Engineer Jonathan McElwain, Senior Engineer Doug Elliott, Principal Structural Engineer
General Contractor Orr Partners, Falls Church, Va. David Orr, President (Principal-in-Charge) Scott Siegel (Principal) Tony Lee (Project Manager) Rachele Marinch (Project Manager)
Chapel Valley Landscape Company, Inc., Dulles, Va. James Reeve (President) Matthew Trendell (Sales Executive) Vigillio Garcia (Project Manager) Sergio Herrate (Site Foreman)
Custom Park Services, Jessup, Md. Bill Armstrong (President) Mike Armstrong (Site Superintendent)
Falls Church Construction Corp., Fairfax, Va. James Cross (President) John Margosian (Executive Vice President) Paul Rinaldi (Treasurer/Secretary) Mark White (Senior Project Manager) Jeff Bartlett (Site Superintendent)
Burgess & Niple, Inc. Chantilly, Va. Michael Sun, P.E. Chan Tin, P.E. Rommel Tamayo, P.E.
Gametime Landscape Structures, Inc. Little Tikes Commercial (PlayPower)
Surface America, Inc.
Chance Morgan, Inc.
Fastsigns of Fairfax
Photography Credits Rebecca Boone Shawn Clotworthy, G. E. Fielder & Associates, Chartered Douglas Lindsey, Dolphin Tactical Jon Ellenbogen Fairfax County Park Authority Mike Fendley, Fendley Reality Mark Holsteen Dan Pugh Drew Saunders: ASLA Staff Don Sweeny
Raleigh, North Carolina
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
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