Creating Outdoor Learning Spaces
The Boston Schoolyard Initiative Teams up
with Landscape Architect, Sonja Johansson, to
Create an Interactive Learning Space for
the Edward Everett Elementary School Campus.
with Landscape Architect, Sonja Johansson, to
Create an Interactive Learning Space for
the Edward Everett Elementary School Campus.
By Jodie Carter, regional editor
The Edward Everett campus graphic plan shows the major design elements needed to transform an eroding, empty schoolyard landscape into a fun, interactive learning space. Two open green spaces, the playfield and the play lawn make room for kids to run on a smooth, safe surface. Custom specified play equipment erected on durable rubber surfacing challenges dexterity. An outdoor classroom is completed with natural seating made of large boulders. Planters give children a venue for interactive learning by offering them a place get their hands dirty placing bulbs and tending to them. A paved, curving ramp allows ADA access to all open play areas, which makes nature study easily accessible for all children. PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHANSSON DESIGN COLLABORATIVE
Other major design features include: the resurfacing of an existing playing field that had been damaged by erosion from the adjacent hillside; installing a retaining wall and stream bed with a drain built using gravel and porous pipe to divert rainwater into dry wells?EUR??,,????'??+allowing most of the water to seep back into the ground; and improved pedestrian access by expanding paved areas at the front entrance.
The city of Boston?EUR??,,????'???s campus improvement project began in 1994, when the Boston GreenSpace Alliance and the Urban Land Use Task Force approached Mayor Thomas Menino to discuss the possibility of a public/private partnership to revitalize neglected pre-K through high school campus spaces.
Local ad hoc groups had been working to improve school grounds, but projects were taking five to eight years to complete and all suffered from a lack of capital investment. The mayor?EUR??,,????'???s solution? The creation of a broad-based schoolyard task force to fund projects and hasten their completion. Formally launched in 1995, the Boston Schoolyard Initiative does just that.
Funding provided in a $2 million-a-year commitment by the city of Boston, including money from the school department?EUR??,,????'???s capital budget, made improvements to the first 55 public school grounds possible. The Boston Schoolyard Funder?EUR??,,????'???s Collaborative and other private sector partners have also contributed over $3 million to the initiative.
?EUR??,,????'??Currently we have completed 55 schoolyards in Boston out of 128 public schools, with another six schools scheduled to begin construction in 2005,?EUR??,,????'?? says Kirk Meyer, executive director of the Boston Schoolyard Funders Collaborative. The comprehensive completion plan for the Boston Schoolyard Initiative is to improve 10 schoolyards each year for five more years.
Choosing Schools
Participating schools include pre-K through high schools that demonstrate the drive and ability to form the academic and community alliances needed to plan and maintain their improved campus landscape. Schools that are backed by a broad constituency of campus stakeholders, including teachers, neighbors, community members, and day care administrators, are more likely to be chosen.
Community Partnerships
The school hires a community organizer to bring a constituency to the design table. This constituency includes teachers, custodians, students, neighborhood residents, local crime watch groups and members of other education programs that might use the campus space.
The first year of the planning process includes community organizing, and discussing relevant issues like traffic and parking. The second year a landscape architect, who is retained and paid by the city, comes on board.
Creating a New Landscape at Edward Everett Campus
Sonja Johansson, landscape architect and principal of Johansson Design Collaborative, designed landscape improvements for Edward Everett elementary school in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. The project was constructed over the summer of 2003 at a cost of approximately $325,000. The campus was the 55th schoolyard designed and installed as part of the Boston Schoolyard Initiative.
The master plan specified poured-in-place rubber surfacing, for its durability, ease of maintenance and slip resistance, as a foundation under play equipment. To ensure the area is ADA accessible, a long, paved ramp sweeps by the play equipment and ends at the rear play field. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Jonas Khan
Johansson?EUR??,,????'???s design of the Edward Everett campus, home to a small 292-student population, includes a new ornamental gateway (adorned with the school?EUR??,,????'???s owl mascot) at the front entrance and curved sitting walls that expand pedestrian access. In the side schoolyard, planters were installed for the children to garden in; an outdoor classroom was created for interactive learning; and a small open play lawn leads to a play equipment area.
All outdoor play areas are ADA accessible by a long curving ramp that flows from the paved play area?EUR??,,????'??+past the play equipment?EUR??,,????'???and ends at the rear play field. In the rear of the schoolyard, an asphalt play area that was resurfaced is now the perfect spot for an afternoon basketball game. A dry stream bed constructed at the outer edge of the play field now catches runoff from the hill beyond?EUR??,,????'???runoff that previously brought water and dirt down the hill, turning the field to mud and clogging the catch basins in the paved areas.
Existing Site Problems
After years of Mother Nature?EUR??,,????'???s unmitigated assault, the existing schoolyard was a deluge of problems. Not much usable landscaping existed in the schoolyard. ?EUR??,,????'??There was no existing play equipment and the grass was really very uneven and worn down,?EUR??,,????'?? said Johansson. The most urgent problems were caused by erosion. Soil and debris from the back hillside had eroded down onto the playing field. ?EUR??,,????'??You couldn?EUR??,,????'???t see the natural topography for all the broken glass and rubble,?EUR??,,????'?? reflects Johansson.
Negotiating?EUR??,,????'??+Budget Vs Vision
?EUR??,,????'??The community saw the lack of outdoor play areas as the problem,?EUR??,,????'?? says Johansson. ?EUR??,,????'??They hadn?EUR??,,????'???t considered that their playground budget might be maxed out trying to correct a long-standing erosion problem.?EUR??,,????'?? Instead of backing off their playground aspirations, the community pushed the construction start date back by a year?EUR??,,????'???enough time for fundraising efforts to double their original budget.
Mitigating Erosion
The extra funds allowed Johansson to actualize the community vision by creating a natural play environment that is sustainable and free of erosion.
The bottom of the eroding hill was made into a dry streambed with small rocks and boulders that create a relaxing place for students to sit. Under the streambed, gravel and porous pipe were installed to divert rainwater into dry wells, allowing most of the water to seep back into the ground.
Behind a blacktop play area, an existing concrete wall attempted to hold back some of the erosion. ?EUR??,,????'??The maintenance people had mortared cinder blocks on top of the wall. It looked terrible and didn?EUR??,,????'???t solve the problem,?EUR??,,????'?? states Johansson. The edges of the property were higher than the play area, so a curvilinear modular block retaining wall system was built, and steps were added for access to the upper play field and dry streambed.
The wall system enabled Johansson to create level play spaces at both the side and rear yards while also providing attractive, curving planted areas also held by the retaining wall. Plantings range from Leucothoe axillaries (coastal leucothoe), Potentilla fruticosa ?EUR??,,????'??jackmanii?EUR??,,????'??? (jackmanii shrubby cinquefoil), and Juniperus virginiana ?EUR??,,????'??grey owl?EUR??,,????'??? (grey owl juniper) along the upper play field retaining wall to three varieties of ferns as the wall moves north flanking the play equipment area. Numerous Athyrium filix-femina, (lady fern), Asclepias tuberosa, (butterfly weed), Hydrangea quercifolia (oak leaf hydrangea) and lots of Tiarella cordifolia (foam flower) fill the landscape just above the play equipment area.
New Play Areas and Play Structures
Grading was required to transform the ugly, bumpy topography into a smooth, level foundation for the new play equipment, which was custom specified by Johansson. While some landscape architects are satisfied using standard play equipment and landscape structures, Johansson is adamant on specifying her own play elements. ?EUR??,,????'??We know a lot about how kids play, so when we design playgrounds we don?EUR??,,????'???t just go with the manufacturer?EUR??,,????'???s standard sets?EUR??,,????'???we always design it ourselves from their modular units.?EUR??,,????'?? As a low-maintenance foundation for the new play equipment, Johansson used rubberized safety surfacing with a colorful wavy pattern. Plantings on the southwest side of the play equipment include one Acer rubrum (red maple) and Tiarella cordifolia (foam flower), which brighten the natural landscape with seasonal color.
Improving Campus Access
Inadequate pedestrian access around a large planter at the campus entry was a problem. ?EUR??,,????'??There was not a wide enough space to walk through this area,?EUR??,,????'?? reflects Johansson, who had the area graded and a new wider concrete walkway installed, which leaves plenty of room for stampedes of kids as they exit and enter the campus.
To complete the welcoming feel of the updated entry, Johansson designed two short curving walls that flank the entry as they open out into the campus entrance and extend onto the concrete walkway. These concrete walls double as benches where parents can rest while they wait for their children to exit the building.
Outdoor Classrooms
Benches and locally quarried boulders were placed as resting places in learning areas. During excavation of the site, contractors digging drywells unearthed three decorative granite scrolls, which were installed as seating in a small outdoor teaching area.
(Before)
The addition of a retaining wall system fulfills many purposes. It creates planters for interactive planning and learning while minimizing erosion onto the recently resurfaced paved play area. The wall also acts as a transparent fencing system that keeps balls and children inside. In the mulch bed below the retaining wall, Potentilla fruticosa ?EUR??,,????'??jackmanii?EUR??,,????'??? (jackmanii shrubby cinquefoil) was planted. Just outside the wall, Sedum kamtschaticum (stone crop) offers contrast with its seasonal pink color. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Sonja Johansson
(After)
In front of the school, curved planters, containing Fothergilla gardenii (dwarf fothergilla) and Hydrangea quercifolia (oak leaf hydrangea), were built out of modular block. Some of the teachers involved with the project use the planters to promote interactive learning by letting the children get their hands dirty setting bulbs in the soil and witnessing their seasonal growth.
On-Going Maintenance
?EUR??,,????'??The challenge with an urban project is ?EUR??,,????'??sustainablility.?EUR??,,????'??? affirms Meyer. To prepare for this challenge, after the landscape construction is complete, the planning group transitions into a ?EUR??,,????'??friends?EUR??,,????'?? group whose job is to contribute to the sustainability of the physical site and ongoing educational programming.
A stewardship grant of about $1,000 is offered to seed the group?EUR??,,????'???s functions. ?EUR??,,????'??These volunteers engage in schoolyard clean-ups and replacement plantings, help repaint murals, games and maps, assist in watering over vacation periods, and they can ?EUR??,,????'??drop a dime?EUR??,,????'?? if they see vandals destroying property,?EUR??,,????'?? says Meyer.
As parents of children who graduate from the school leave and other members of the ?EUR??,,????'??friends?EUR??,,????'?? group relocate and move on, they are responsible for handing off the ?EUR??,,????'??keys?EUR??,,????'?? to new members. They do this by soliciting community assistance from fraternal and civic groups that perform community service. ?EUR??,,????'??They enlist those groups, like the Lions the Elks,?EUR??,,????'?? states Meyer. ?EUR??,,????'??We encourage the friends group to align themselves with local groups to do things like repaint the games or mend a fence or for general clean up.?EUR??,,????'??
The Evolution of Playground Design
Johansson?EUR??,,????'???s interest in designing structures around how kids play has been evolving for over 37 years. Johansson has been involved with playground design since her student days in the 1960s at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In the 1960s she worked with Paul Friedberg, FASLA, when she helped to develop his ideas for the first line of modular, linked timber play equipment for ?EUR??,,????'??continuous play.?EUR??,,????'?? ?EUR??,,????'??They were designing really interesting playthings back in the ?EUR??,,????'??60s. They were evolving new things outside what was typical in New York. In those days a playground was sandbox, a see-saw, a jungle gym and a slide,?EUR??,,????'?? remembers Johansson who started making new play structures with wood, and started designing new kinds of playgrounds for kids of all ages.
Thirty-two years ago, with the beginning of her own office, Johansson saw that urban New York City playgrounds were designed for school age children, but were used most often by infants, toddlers and their caregivers. Johansson made three significant contributions to the design of play spaces: she created the first infant and toddler play equipment in New York City public play areas (by the 1990s most manufacturers added infant/toddler equipment.); she created places for different age groups; and she emphasized the relationship between children and parents in playgrounds by providing comfortable adult seating spaces, and adult friendly play areas, and also by using protective railings?EUR??,,????'???not only for safety, but to create ?EUR??,,????'??transparent, secret places.?EUR??,,????'??
Decorative granite scrolls unearthed during excavation of the site are now used as stone benches for children as they gather around their teacher in a small outdoor teaching area. Landscape architect, Sonja Johansson speculates that the scrolls might have been part of a major gateway or an abandoned bridge. Photo COURTESY OF: Sonja Johansson
Photo COURTESY OF: Cynthia Pape
Johansson designed the first play equipment using colorful metal posts and wood platforms for the NYC Department of Parks, which later used those designs in their package of ?EUR??,,????'??standard details?EUR??,,????'?? both for in-house use and for all landscape architect consultants. ?EUR??,,????'??I became interested in designing for how very small, young children play, and started designing equipment that infants and toddlers would use. I still do those custom designs. I will take manufactured pieces, but I don?EUR??,,????'???t just ask them to give me the standard configuration ?EUR??,,????'??? I make it up myself. ?EUR??,,????'??What?EUR??,,????'???s so wonderful and rewarding about designing a playground is seeing how kids and parents are using it,?EUR??,,????'?? says Johansson. ?EUR??,,????'??With buildings you have to imagine how the people inside are using them ?EUR??,,????'??? but with playgrounds you can go visit and witness how they?EUR??,,????'???re being used.?EUR??,,????'??
Johansson?EUR??,,????'???s playground projects include:
Edward Everett Schoolyard,
Dorchester, MA
BSLA Merit Award 2004
Harriet Baldwin Schoolyard,
Dorchester, MA
BSLA Merit Award 2002
The Rusk Children?EUR??,,????'???s Play Garden for Interactive Therapeutic Play
NYU Medical Center; NY, NY
BSLA Merit Award 2001
AIA Certificate of Merit 1999
Adaptive Environments, Excellence in Universal Design, 2003
Tiffany Moore and Humboldt Walnut Playlots
in Olmsted?EUR??,,????'???s Franklin Park
Boston, MA
BSLA Merit Award 1996
Phineas Bates Schoolyard,
Dorchester, MA
Orchard Park,
Dorchester, MA
Shipyard Park in Boston Naval Shipyard,
Charlestown, MA
Rockefeller Park Playground in Battery Park City
(designed with her former partner, Donna Walcavage)
New York, NY
