Pierpont Park, Peabody

So in my previous post of Cove Playground, we showed what a little, insignificant playground can be transformed into (of course with proper funding and finances). Sadly, here's what happens when a small insignificant playground is updated without proper funding and finances (or without care, I don't know).

Here's what Pierpont used to look like.

And here's what they have done. Not that much. And definitely the design of the playground is still as rudimentary as before. Random pieces of structures disjointedly sitting in a woodchip covered space. Really?


The only thing we liked about this update was the colorful new spring riders. Although there was still something nostalgic about the older, wooden horse spring rider.

Pierpont is upgraded from a one-star playground to a two-star. And that's ONLY because the equipment is newer and the woodchips are fresh.

Cove Playground (Kimball-Haskell)

In the previous post, I had mentioned several playground updates. Let's start with the most exciting: Cove Playground, sometimes call Kimball-Haskell, located in Beverly.

Here's the playground before renovation.



And here's the new playground. This is just about at the same angle. AND, this photo is only highlighting the 5-12 year old set up. They have another toddler set up as well as you can see below with the cool ladybug spring rider.


This is a shot from the opposite side of the playground.

Some people would find this upgrade a disappointment as the classic, unique, wooden structure with real tires are on the verge of safety extinction. They would be right of course, but this upgrade is such a drastic change it really does make it better. Cove Playground is used by the Beverly Park and Rec as a summer play program destination. Now the kids at the program will have much more fun and have shade as the previous structure had none! In addition, those counselor's jobs will be much more exciting as now the campers are going to be EVERYWHERE as the playground just quadrupled in size!

The structure is essentially built by Little Tykes (Little Tykes and Miracle Recreation are now owned by the same company, PowerPlay) and has their Infinity Loop component as seen in the upper photo on the left side. My 11-year old (WHAT?! HE'S ELEVEN?) really enjoyed this as it is a new design.

With all the new equipment, quadruple the previous playground, some shade, and new wood chips, the playground has moved up from a two-star playground to a FOUR-STAR!


Although sad to see another classic playground disappear no matter how much it needed maintenance, luckily North Shore photographer Tracy Milkay has captured the old Cove Playground in her book, Child's Play: Vanishing Vintage Playgrounds.

You can see and order her book here.

There are some great photos of vintage equipment and structures in this beautiful book.

Looong time

No excuse. Weather is getting nice. Summer is coming, and it is time to get outside and enjoy the playgrounds without snow in your boots.

Stay tuned as there are some changes to some playgrounds on the North Shore including:
Pierpont Park, Peabody
DiBiasse, Salem
Cove/Kimball-Haskell, Beverly
Endicott, Danvers

I'll be trying to get to some of them this weekend with the boys.
A cool water table set up at Harriet Bishop Playground at Harriet Island in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Eagle Nest, Essex

I was invited to speak to the Essex Elementary PTO about playgrounds today. NOT to replace the BEAUTIFUL, 5 start Eagle Nest Playground but to supplement it and make it even better. Thank goodness. A discussion of making the addition a Natural Playground developed and it was very well received!

Third Edition is DONE

The third edition is done and in your independently owned bookstores and toy stores.

Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Beverly
Silly Goose, Essex
Toodeloos!, Gloucester
Banbury Cross Children's Bookstore, Wenham
Zak's Handcraft and gifts, Manchester-by-the-Sea
Marblehead Toy Shop, Marblehead
Mud Puddle Toys, Marblehead AND SALEM
Toad Hall Bookstore, Rockport
Cornerstone Books, Salem
Crunchy Granola Baby, Salem

Mud Puddle will be caring them for the first time in their Marblehead store as well as in their NEW Salem store. In addition the NEW toy store in Gloucester, Toodeloos! will be caring them as well. Both GREAT stores with friendly people!

You can see the updated list of where you can buy the books at the web site:
www.visualvoices.net/publications

Thanks to all for being so patient.

Radio Show about Natural Playgrounds

Public Radio station WBUR just did a broadcast on their show Radio Boston about the trend to create "Natural Playgrounds." The concept to these playgrounds is open ended play using natural environments: plants, rocks, sand, wood, logs. Children get back to basics with the natural world while helping their cognitive development.

Hear it here: http://radioboston.wbur.org/2010/07/13/kids-parks

They speak of two playgrounds to look at if you are interested, but I believe they are both private.
The Sparks Center in Mattapan and Au Co Preschool at Viet AID in Dorchester. Both were designed by architects at Studio G.

Sadly I have no photos . . . yet.

Third Edition is at the printers

Woohooo!!

Third Edition STILL to come!

Ok. So it has been awhile. I apologize.

As summer approaches . . . oops, it's here already? . . . I have been getting calls for the third edition of the book. I said, "I am hoping to get it done in the beginning of June." Then I said, "I am hoping to get it done sometime in June." Now I am saying, "LEAVE ME ALONE. I'M WORKING ON IT!!!" No no, actually I am close. We are in the copy editing phase. Write ups are done. Photos are done. Just Gloucester's map needs to be updated and I'm done. Give another week for editing. And another for printing. That means . . . end of July probably. Maybe it can be earlier. I'm sorry.

Third Edition due sometime in July.

Rockport Elementary School

A representative of a playground design and installation company (Site Specifics) has informed me that Rockport Elementary School had installed a new FULLY accessible playground. This makes it the fourth fully accessible playground on the North Shore. 

Here are some photos from Cindy Maak, the Site Specifics representative. The photos are of the playground during construction. I have yet to make it out to the playground. I would go now even though there is 7" of snow on the ground currently, but the photos wouldn't be as good as I would want them. So we shall go visit it when the snow melts.

The four fully accessible playgrounds are:

1. Touch the Sky Playground (Beverly School for the Deaf)

2. Ross Memorial Park in Peabody

3. Abbot Park, Swampscott (only partially, but not bad)

4. and now Rockport Elementary

North Beverly Elementary School will have the FIFTH fully accessible playground sometime in the summer of 2009.

Forest River Park

It's been quite some time since I have entered a post, but I got something now.

The Friends of Forest River Park is holding an "Inaugural Ball" in commemoration of Obama's presidential inauguration. The ball is to raise money to rebuild the playground for children ages 5 to 12 at Forest River.

The even will be held Saturday, January 17, 2008, at 7:30 pm at the "grand ballroom" in the Salem YMCA on Essex Street.

Tickets are $25 per person and $40 per couple. They can be purchased at my favorite baby store, Crunchy Granola Baby, 72 Washington St.

For more information, catact Holly Grose at hollygrose@aol.com.

Forest River

So a friend of my wife called to ask for donations to fund the new Forest River Park playground. She says that they are hoping to build a new playground next summer, 2009. Here's what it currently looks like, and I don't think it's that bad either.

Well, I better put that in here shouldn't I? I'll put up more information about it as I get it.

Bessie Baker Park

A long time ago, Lauren commented that Landscape Structure's newest 2008 playground setup, called the EVO, could be seen at Bessie Baker Playground in Beverly, located off Colon St. which is off Route 1A, Cabot St.

She was RIGHT!!

A full view of the partial EVO playstructure.

A rear view of the structure. Are those bunny ears in the right hand corner?

Bessie Baker had redone their playground and replaced their old wooden playground with the EVO, or part of it. It is a very fun looking playground and it is the new thinking in playground design, exploratory play. The idea is that there is not ONE way to play on the structure but many exploratory ways.

The draw back is safety. Children can climb ALL OVER this thing including on top and over the bars. BUT, I think this is GREAT!!! I have mentioned it before and posted links to articles discussing the unidirectional play that current structures provide and it is boring. It looks like some playground equipment companies are rethinking design. HURRAY!!

With that said, I am sad to report that it was not ALL that fun. Some extraneous stuff that make the structure LOOK cool but does not have a lot of play value. The web netting was fun and the "stand and spin" was fast enough to get me nauseous in just 4 revolutions. The middle section has some plastic, hanging, crawl throughs (think hanging tires in older playgrounds), which look cool and are moderately fun.

Than there were these completely useless hand-peddle things. You sat at it and use your hands to peddle. But all the peddling does nothing. You don't spin, move up or down, swivel or anything. Nothing happens. You just peddle. Very Zen, but not that fun.

My oldest son rated this playground three stars. I had to agree. If you're close by, definitely stop by and see the cool structure and have a new play experience. But don't be expected to be over WOWed.

Salem Common Update 2

When we last left this story; after working on the design and planning of the Salem Common playground, Parents United of Salem had their design rejected by the Historical Commision and therefore delayed the opening of the playground for this year. Apparently the Commission did not approve of the color scheme and wanted a playground that reflected the history of Salem (ie. sailing, harbor?). Although the commission was invited to the playground process earlier, they opted to wait till final designs were established before commenting (note: no footnote here).

At the last Historical Commission meeting, a NEW, modified Landscape Structure design was presented and . . . approved (image below . . . not of the joyous P.U. of Salem members rejoicing, but of the new design).

The Historical Commission will return on September 3rd to discuss colors and flooring options further, but for the time being are allowed to promote the green/khaki color scheme.

Also at the meeting, City Counselor Mike Sosnowski was given pictures of the existing damages on our current playground. Counselor Sosnowski said he was not aware of these necessary repairs and he will see that they are fixed while waiting for the new playground.

The hope is have the new playground installed July 2009. Thanks to Kelly Fouhey for the recent update and image.

Stay tuned for more info . . .

Salem Common Update

First, I have been trying to get that image for the new design of the Salem Common playground and I have not been very successful. But now it seems, the image is moot.

I was at the common today and I was speaking with my neighbor down the street (I actually just met her . . . kind of sad really that she lived down the street and I have never met her until today) who was at the Parents United of Salem (P.U.S. . . unfortunate acronym) picnic, said that the Salem Common Neighborhood Historical Society suddenly decided to get involved and did not approve of the designs of the new playground. 

They wanted a Maritime theme or something and felt the green modular system was not appropriate. I think they have to start from scratch again. eeeeuuu

Salem Common

The Salem Common playground is still the same. BUT, it is being worked on. I've blogged about before, but I still haven't received a photo of the initial designs. 

Anyhoo, one thing they had done was to remove the broken benches from around the huge maple tree. Well, LUCKILY, they have replaced those benches and they look beautiful!

Thank goodness because that was the only good place to sit and watch your kids.

Ackerman Playground

Julie Z. who purchased a book through my web site also mentioned a great playground in Boxford. Robert M. Ackerman Playground. 

A view of the front entrance.

Very NICE! Similar design to Eagle Nest in Essex, and Action Cove in West Newbury. Mostly wood with lots of nooks and crannies to run and hide in. Althoug

h my now eight-year-old said that there are "not as many long tunnels."

A view from the side.

A view of the inside of the park.

A back view.

The playground is located off Dana road which is off Cahoon Road which is off Topsfield Road, which is Exit 52 on 95.

Well worth the visit.

Rating: Five stars

San Diego Playgrounds

Jennifer D. emailed me with this site for Playgrounds in San Diego County, California.

sdplaygrounds.com

So if you are in San Diego and need to know where some playgrounds are, check it out!

Failed Playdates

So I went to take pictures and see the new playground at the Carroll School in Peabody. I even made it a playdate with one of my son's friends. We went driving around to playgrounds that I needed to update.

Well, I went to the Carroll Savage Park and found that the playground was unchanged. That's because it's NOT the Carroll School, it's the South Memorial School. So we went to this other playground I needed to update, and that was the wrong one too.

All the bad memories from creating the guidebook the first time came rushing back to me. "Are we there yet?" "I'm hot." "I'm dying of thirst." increased by a third child.

Now I know where the Carroll School is, and I'm going to get the rotten picture. And you know what, I'm going to go by myself just in case I'm wrong and get lost . . . which is such a high likelyhood.

Good Beverly Kids

This is a bit older news, but Dylan (10 years old) and Logan (8 years old) Stevens have taken it upon themselves to clean up graffiti from Beverly's playgrounds, one playground at a time this summer.

The brother and sister team were shocked to find graffiti at Obear Park, near the Kernwood Bridge, and proceeded to clean it off with sponges and various cleaners. Beverly patrolman David Costa saw the good citizens and went and restocked their cleaning supplies for them.

The best part is, these kids have inspired others to do the same.

Thank you Dylan and Logan!!!

New Playground in Beverly Coming!

A new playground is planned for the North Beverly Elementary School. What will make this playground EXTRA special is that it will be the second in Beverly, the fourth on the North Shore, that is TOTALLY DISABILITY ACCESSIBLE.

It is said to be similar to structure at Ross Memorial Park in Peabody, below. 

The playground is being built by Boundless Playgrounds. A "national nonprofit dedicated to helping communities create extraordinary barrier-free playgrounds where children, with and without disabilities, can develop essential skills for life as they learn together through play." The playground is hoped to be installed by summer, 2009.

The playground is currently raising funds and tax-deductible donations can be sent to:

North Beverly Playground Fund

North Beverly Elementary School

48 Putnam St

Beverly, MA 01915