The Urge To Play - Garland Playground Replacement Program

The Urge to Play

From the early stages of infancy, human beings are designed with the urge to play built into our nature. Playing is one of the key ways we interact with and experience the world around us, as well as an essential element to cognitive, social, emotional, and physical growth. Despite the innate desire and need for play, statistics have shown that outdoor playtime has decreased by 71% in just one generation’s time in the United States. The City of Garland Park System provides the opportunity for local families to participate in outdoor recreation and is essential for promoting the experience and benefits of play.

Cognitive

Interaction with sensory elements found outdoors creates the opportunity for children to learn both about their environmental surroundings as well as practice critical thinking and problem solving. Playgrounds foster the development of teamwork and community and provide early opportunities for children to learn to work together to overcome challenges.

Social

Living in a world where technology is at our fingertips and social media is becoming our primary form of socialization and communication, providing opportunities for children and families to interact face to face is more important than ever. Whether it be an active game of tag, a friendly soccer match, or simply imaginative play on a playground structure, parks and playgrounds serve to push people away from their televisions and phones and into the great outdoors.

Through both positive and negative interactions, children learn to manage their feelings and develop appropriate emotional responses. Outdoor play can be a great introduction to the world of conflict and problem solving as well as developing self-confidence and positive self-esteem.

Emotional Physical

Whether it’s climbing a rope ladder, navigating a bridge or staircase, or racing your friends to the top of the slide, playing promotes health and physical development like nothing else. Playgrounds foster a safe and controlled environment for physical activity to happen in the form of play, which generally leads to a reduction in childhood obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The Design of Playgrounds

A great playground design is multi-faceted and inclusively considers a wide range of variables to ensure that the end-product is one that will keep families coming back time and time again. The driving factor for all good playground design has to be safety. Playgrounds that utilize proper free- fall space and safety surfacing allow for an appropriate measure of risk and excitement while limiting dangerous hazards.

Creating a balance between a safe playground space and one that allows a child to test and learn their physical skill and agility limits is paramount to the process. Providing a wide variety of obstacles and structures for different age and skill levels with multiple recreational

opportunities for children of all ages and abilities helps create the ideal space for children and families to play. Balancing, swinging, climbing, spinning, sliding, and running all build different skills and emotional responses in children. Inclusive play is imperative to maximizing the experience of a play space for all users. A truly great design not only incorporates accessibility in the playscape itself but considers the entire user experience, incorporating accessibility from the parking area all the way to the playground.

But what will really draw kids to the playground?

The “WOW” factor!

Aesthetics are definitely a key component of a playground’s attractiveness. From the curb appeal to the playscape to the perimeter landscaping, a playground’s visual appeal is the first impression for the user and sometimes the determining factor in bringing people in to play. Unique amenities and exciting experiences within a playground will also keep people coming back to the park. A wow- factor can really be any standout feature that is memorable and sets the park apart in the mind of the user.

A large themed-play structure, a beautiful tree, elevation changes or even surface materials can all be features that stand-out in a user’s mind and create that desired wow-factor in a park and they should be unique and different for each site. While every project should incorporate incredible design, attention to budgets and cost projections is also a vital part of the conception to completion process.

Not only do the play structures themselves have to be factored into these cost estimates, but a careful cost analysis of necessary drainage, dirt work, parking, lighting, irrigation, utilities, playground edging and safety surface materials all must be included in the design process. MHS Planning has analyzed many of these factors from the beginning of the redesign project for 24 playgrounds in the City of Garland.

Each site was inventoried and reviewed factoring in social demographics, surrounding parks, predominate ages of each park neighborhood and specific land usage in the proximity of the park as well as drainage, grading, irrigation, electrical and other pertinent information to assess what unique qualities should remain or be removed in the redesign.

After performing site visits and inventory, each playground was designated to one of four categories; Nature Play, Adventure/Fitness Play, Themed Play, and Traditional Play. Each park category was then spread evenly throughout the community in equal regions. This method allows the City of Garland to provide varying types of playgrounds to fit multiple needs throughout the community.