too high, too fast, too fun: how america destroyed the epic playgrounds...and how we can build them...
TRANSCRIPT
Too High, �Too Fast, �Too Fun
• How America Destroyed the Epic Playgrounds— And how we can build them back up.
The playground is a microcosm of everything we are. Different races, different religions, different socio-‐economic backgrounds all converge in the same place with same goal—to have a good ?me.
In just 20 years, we went from this
But while the sheer number of playgrounds have increased in America, their excitement factor has dropped drama?cally. It's no accident that this drop in fun factor coincides with the faEening of America's children. In 20 years, We’ve gone from this…
To This
To this… From 1980 to 2010, obesity in children 6-‐11 went from 6.5% to 19.6%. Teenage obesity went from 5% to 18.1%. There are many factors aEributed to this number, but the loss of the epic playgrounds-‐-‐Torn down and demolished due to neglect, lack of imagina?on, and overprotec?ve safety laws-‐-‐have played a big part. How did we get to this point? Let's go back to the start.
America, Late 1800s
1880. America is in the middle of the industrial revolu?on. In urban centers, people are living in cramped quarters. In 1900, 1.7million children worked in factories working on average 12 hour days. The Machine Age, much like the Internet Age, is turning the children into pasty mush.
• sand
A woman named Dr. Marie Zakrewska took a trip to Germany, and saw kids from all sorts of economic backgrounds all playing in the same plot of sand.
• sand
So in 1885, The MassachuseEs Emergency and Hygiene Associa?on (MEHA) wheeled a giant pile of sand to a church yard in the North End of Boston.
America’s First Playground
• Boston, 1885
1880s
Here's a pile of sound. Go nuts. Like proper Bostonians, they called to their pile of sand as the “Sand Garden.” And Boston went on to install 11 more of these sand gardens for immigrant children, eventually changing the name from “sand garden” to “playground.”
First Playground Equipment • Chicago, Ill.
1890s
In 1889, Charlesbank gymnasium introduced the idea of playground equipment. Two pole ladders, flying rings, hanging ropes. All for kids. NY built one in 1890 at the University SeElement in Lower East Side. Chicago built this one in 1894 at Hull House.
Lower East Side, 1903
In 1903, NYC opened Seward Park in the Lower East Side. On opening day, the pent-‐up need exploded, and 20,000 kids caused a near riot as they rushed to play on their new playground.
Boston, 1909 1900s
In 1904, Los Angeles built a playground on Violet Street, and created the na?ons first Playground Department. 35 ci?es had playgrounds by 1905. The Playground Associa?on of America was established, with honorary president and vice president Teddy Roosevelt and Jacob Riis.
Na?onal Recrea?on Associa?on Established
• Regarded play as a “fundamental urge in human existence, scarcely less powerful and important than the urges of physical hunger and sex.”
1910s
So we have physical hunger, sex, then play as the most important urges in human existence. Breathing? Must be fourth.
The first Jungle Gym
• Winnetaka, Ill., 1920
1920s
The Jungle gym was invented in 1920 by Sebas?an Hinton in Winneteka, North of Chicago, who claimed the contrap?on appealed to the "monkey ins?nct" in children. Ironically, he was a lawyer. It was replicated in playgrounds across the country. NY had more than 800 jungle gyms alone. The original is s?ll standing.
The Really Tall Slide
“Children need to encounter risks and overcome fears on the playground,” said Ellen Sandseter, a professor of psychology at Queen Maud University in Norway. “Climbing equipment needs to be high enough, or else it will be too boring in the long run,” Dr. Sandseter said
• 1924
The Girls Need to Play, Too
1920s
Playground and recrea?on were essen?al for the new immigrants of America. They mainly focused on the boys, crea?ng good new ci?zens. But the girls were also a concern. The “...girl living in tenements and working in the shop is nervously ?red at end of day, home is unaErac?ve…She goes out onto the street and to the cheap theater, whose standard she possible adopts because she has none of her own, or else she goes to the dance halls. Her vitality is at a low ebb. [Author’s emphasis] She takes her first drink, which the boy in order to show his gallantry presses upon her, and so she takes her first downward step.”
• In the 1920s, America went to war. And during the dras, 25 percent of the young men selected were deemed unfit
1920s
FIND IMAGE OF WW1
[W]e have seen for the first ?me the na?on’s child, measured, weighed and found wan?ng...” said the Na?onal Federa?on of SeElements. (“Study of Young Girls,” ca 1921) Young men were described as “incapable of effec?ve service, and that at a ?me when civiliza?on hung in the balance.” (Lies, 1926) Then the depression came.
During the depression, The WPA Picked Up the Slack, and Built 13,000
Playgrounds Across the Country.
Aser the crash of 1929, there wasn’t a lot of money floa?ng around for things like playgrounds, but when the WPA was established, it created 13,000 playgrounds in it's first five years.
But for the New Genera?on of American Kids, the Playgrounds They Built were Boring
1940s
But even though we were building a lot more playgrounds, and they had more climbing and athle?c elements, the kids were changing. Kids didn’t want supervision, and they didn’t want just swings slides and climbing. They wanted something more.
Enter Adventure Playgrounds 1940
In 1943, Danish landscape architect C. Th. Sørensen no?ced kids liked playing in junk and burned out buildings from the war more than the standard playground equipment.
Kids playing in bomb sites and burned out buildings—crea?ng their own worlds. So why not create a safe place mimicking that experience?
Kids would use their imagina?ons along with their bodies, and create some really great adventures.
Abstract 1950s
That was going on in Europe. In America, things were gevng artsy. 1953, a company called Crea?ve Playthings started an offshoot called Play Sculptures, using ar?sts as designers.
The Art world starts to notice playgrounds 1950s
Garner and Ketcham designed the first popular character themed playground, the Dennis The Menace playground, in Monterey, California in 1952
1952 • Monterey Park, California Dennis the Menace Playground.
1950s
It included some very interes?ng rides—one of which kids referred to as “the spinning crane of death”
It has it’s own facebook fan page—but it has 7,000 fans. And they remember the spinning crane of death!
In the 1960s, the space race starts, and we start reaching for the stars. Walt Disney had the concept of “The Weenie,” which draws kids you into the park. That is what these did. Instead of building a statue, put money into a themed environment that commemorates the person or the act, but gives back to the children of the community—what a great idea!
• La Laguna, San Gabriel, 1965
1960s
In the 1960s, true theming really begins. This one in California, by Mexican ar?st Benjamin Dominguez, was made of concrete and had a great nau?cal theme.
New York City, 1967 1960s
NYC’s “Ancient Playground” 1967 designed by Richard DaEner in Central Park, which was based on the theme of ancient Egypt. It was a direct response in NY to the boring, regimented parks that Robert Moses built in the earlier era.
The 1970s
It’s about to get funky.
The Golden Age of Playgrounds
This is from a company called Game Time, out of Litchfield, Michigan. I think Gene Roddenberry might have something to say about the design, but I would so want to play there.
• La Cienega and Olympic, 1975
1970s
From Miracle and Jamison in Grinnel Iowa. A Giganta actually stood at La Cienega and Olympic in Los Angeles.
1970s
Game Time. The Mark IV Satellite tower is just an explosion of color.
The people love it!
1970s
Another from Miracale and Jamison. Ideally Trouble Free. A quote from the director of parks at Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, discussing the great feedback the Astro City has goEen.
Slide close-‐up
1970s
The 70s! I don’t know how much fun there are, but they look amazing.
1980s
Then the lawyers took over.
Mass Tort Lawsuits against Asbetos, Formaldehyde, cars, the Dalkin Shield—America fell in love with Lawsuits in the 1980s. -‐-‐And on the playground, climbing-‐-‐ Climbing, heights, was the biggest target. But climbing gives people, especially kids, a huge, perhaps biggest sense of accomplishment. “Children need to encounter risks and overcome fears on the playground,” said Ellen Sandseter, a professor of psychology at Queen Maud University in Norway.
Seward Park—In 1903, 20,000 Kids Riot For the Right to Play
Remember Seward Park in New York, where 20,000 kids caused a near riot for their right to play?
Seward Park Playground Today
This is what it looks like today.
All being torn down.
All being torn down.
Do not play on or around
Kids need to conquer fear-‐-‐If you suffer a fall before age of 9, you actually have less of a fear of heights. The need to assess risk. They have been doing it for thousands of years. And we are stun?ng them. This one was turned into art project.
There are many elements that add to this: The sedentary nature of TV watching and video game playing, large por?ons and faEy foods. But the lack of fun playgrounds has played a part. We have traded the threat of lawsuits for obese children. Traded video games for higher health care bills.
It is up to us to create the playgrounds of the future—to
merge art, play, social and digital to build the next generation of neighborhood play places.
But It's beyond that. The idea that children can play outside, can wonder, and and dream in the physical world. Even though we are crea?ng fantasy worlds, they are far more real that the worlds of Warcras, Wizards 101, and everything else the children are playing in today. There is a very fledgling movement of building playgrounds kids want to actually play in.
This one in the Netherlands-‐-‐It’s like something right out of a Tim Burton Movie
The Peter Pan park in Kensington Gardens London is a great of example of a park kids beg to go to-‐-‐Giant pirate ship, teepees, water features, rope climbs.
Budapest, Hungary
Even a liEle graffi? can’t deter the fun
of this park in Hungary
I love this one in Alameda, even if it is a liEle overboard. See the guy in the car? That’s a security guard. The slide is so fast, it needs it’s own security guard. I appreciate the effort.
.
Dual slides in Montogomary, PA—this was built to honor a mother and child who were murdered in the town
Tom OEernesses “Bronze Guy” shows the crosssec?on of art and fun
David Rockwell, the man who created Nobu and the Mohegan Sun, raised 2 million dollars in private funds to build a collabora?ve play area in New York's south street seaport. Climbing nets, big sandbox, pulleys and pulls. Kids work together to get tasks done. Excellent, but…
… It's also very expensive, since the park employs "play associates," to help kids play and keep them safe. Which you can do in the most expensive city in the country, but won’t play in Peoria.
• Paris
Giant slide in Paris
Pirate shipwreck park in Australia
A very old-‐school Adventure Playground in Berkeley, Cal. There are 1,000 adventure playgrounds in Europe. There are only 3 les in the United States.
Not Just for the Kids
Walt Disney conceived of Disneyland because he was sick of taking his two liEle girls to the merry go round, while he sat on a bench and fed peanuts to squirrels. He wanted to join in the fun. Adult-‐sized playgrounds are equally important.
We can build these, and get the kids back out there.
• And make playgrounds that both adults and children can play on.
• Slide Billy Jensen If you want to join the fun: @Billyjensen -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
• Kids who live a half mile from a playground are nearly five ?mes more likely to be a healthy weight than kids without a playground or park in their neighborhood.
October 2008 issue of the "American Journal of Public Health"