The LaSalle II Magnet School is a world language academy in Chicago that serves students in preschool through eighth grade. The creative minds at site design group, ltd. worked with the Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) LaSalle II Magnet School to re-imagine their outdated playground into an exploratory play space that represents the multicultural, multilingual mission of the school. In addition to core subjects, students are required to study one of four foreign languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, or Spanish.

Together with the LaSalle II Magnet School and an active community, site design group, ltd. designed a play space based on the concept of story time, where four children's stories representing each of the four languages taught at the school come to life. Don Quixote in Spanish, One Thousand and One Nights in Arabic, Journey to the West in Chinese, and Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) in French are incorporated into the playground scheme through concept, imagery, and bilingual quotes that provide a unique educational opportunity and further awareness of other cultures beyond the playground.

The Playground, A Work of Imagination
At the very west end of the site looking toward the neighborhood is The Little Prince planet, a three foot high rubber surfacing mound with an accessible spiraling sloped walkway to the top, two embankment slides, and beanstalk climbers that lead to a singular rose climber – an icon which was borrowed from imagery within the book. The popular fox sculpture serves as a shady nook to sit under with friends, and has the quote: "The most essential things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt within the heart," in English and in the original French. Children not only use the mound as a place to sit on, run up, roll down, but also use the area as a place of social interaction across age groups.

Facing The Little Prince planet is a Chinese-inspired landscape represented through the story Journey to the West, commonly known for the Monkey King character. A custom sculpture of the Monkey King has the quote, "Nothing in this world is difficult, but thinking makes it seem so. Where there is true will, there is a way." The Monkey King structure is a tall rope climber with an enormous play boulder nearby. Connected to the boulder are composite deck wave climbers that simulate rolling clouds. While children hop on top of and across the wave climbers, they also provide nooks of respite below, and kids are often encountered playing games underneath them. The wave climbers also tie into the next story – One Thousand and One Nights – where a "Magic Carpet" bench recalls imagery from the story, and provides a platform for resting or climbing. The quote "My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind" adorns the carpet in English and Arabic.

In addition to providing a play space and physical climbing challenge, the wave climbers, which connect to the play boulder (right), offer shady nooks under which students congregate and play.

Finally, facing the school is the series of three towers interconnected by bridges and monkey bars, with a custom windmill sign to represent Don Quixote. Small rubber hills within this area play up the scale of the towers, and utilize the surface as another play element within the space.

site design group, ltd. designed the playground with reading and creativity in mind. Images from the four stories were incorporated across the playground, bringing them to life through play.

Students are often seen playing an informal game, trying to reach from one end of the playground to the other without touching the blue rubber surfacing that depicts water or sky. The quote on the windmill, written in English and Spanish, reads: ""?(R)? translation from one language to another "?(R)? is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side."

The Little Prince planet mound brings kids to new heights with the beanstalk and rose climbers, inspired by images from the novella.

Weathered and rounded limestone outcroppings define planting beds at different heights to give the space seasonal interest, texture, and pops of color for the playground. The beds contain hardy trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials, creating shade and seasonal interest throughout. Formal and informal seating opportunities also occur on the outer edges of the playground, providing peaceful space for resting students or supervising teachers and parents. The play space is enlivened with bright colors and numerous rubber mounds that create topographical changes throughout the small lot.

OpenLands and Christy Webber Landscapes collaborated to create the outdoor classroom and native and edible plant gardens. About 600 students came out to help plant and mulch the gardens. The "We Are All Light" mural (right and in the photo below) incorporates the five languages taught at the school, and elements of their cultures and sports. The mural was designed and installed by Julia Sowles-Barlow and Alfonso "Piloto" Nieves Ruiz, artists from the Chicago Public Art Group. Over 500 students from kindergarten through 8th grade made ceramic tiles for the mural.

Beyond the Playground
The LaSalle II Magnet School worked with Christy Webber Landscapes, the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), and OpenLands – a regional conservation nonprofit and land trust – to design and implement an outdoor classroom, edible garden and brightly colored mural wall that surround the playground. The gardens include seating, pavement painting and native and edible planting beds. The goals of the gardens are to improve school campuses as vital open spaces for Chicago residents; develop a curriculum connection between the classroom and the garden; incorporate art in the garden; and engage the students in creating, installing and maintaining the garden. The students helped plan and install the garden. Approximately 600 students came out to help plant all of the native perennials and mulch both of the new gardens. Additionally, the students help sustain the gardens in their daily use of the area.

The windmill climber features the Don Quixote quote: ""?(R)? translation from one language to another "?(R)? is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side." The play structure has monkey bars and bridges that connect the three towers. The green rubber mounds have inspired the kids to play a game that involves trying to step from mound to mound from one end of the playground to the other without stepping in the "water," i.e., on the blue rubber surfacing.

A mural – "We Are All Light" – depicts 5 different languages, cultures, and sports - designed and installed by CPAG artists Julia Sowles-Barlow and Alfonso "Piloto" Nieves Ruiz. Symbols from Mesoamerican, Arabic, Chinese, and French cultures were used with images of modern day children playing. Words in various languages float throughout the mural, translating to: "Teamwork," "Goals," "Respect," "Connect" and "Cultures." In spite of its expansive diversity, the mural is able to establish a conversation within itself that transmits to the viewer its message: that we all are light. Over 500 students, kindergarten through 8th grade, made either a circle or star ceramic figure to be included in the mural.

Team List:
Lead, landscape architect - playground: site design group, ltd.
Civil engineer: Gloger Engineers, Ltd.
Electrical engineer: Advance Consulting Group
Contractor: Reliable & Associates Construction Co.
Lead - outdoor classroom and edible garden: OpenLands
Landscape architect - outdoor classroom and edible garden: Christy Webber Landscapes
Mural: Chicago Public Art Group

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