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.

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

The Neo

Here's Play World Systems' newest 2008 addition, The Neo.

It's an oversized electronic game powered with 12 volts.. The Neo can be powered by solar energy, panels not included. 

Their reasoning for this giant-sized, light-up Simon: kids are playing video games indoors, let's have them play video games outdoors.

The Evo

Here's a  Landscape Structures new playground equipment design for 2008. It's called the EVO.

Here's a gallery of the structure

I have always been a HUGE fan of a specific playground manufacturer (and no, I do not get any endorsements from them), KOMPAN. They are not a HUGE player in the US market, but are getting there. But my point is, they have had this type of "freeform", creative play, structure for several years and I have raved about their ability to create unguided, creative play on their structures. My kids RAVE about them as well.

It seems the "big" playground structure companies are beginning to follow suit.

Very cool.

Great Article!

This article appeared in the Boston Globe back in April, 2007, by Drake Bennet.

Back to the Playground article

A great push for more leniency and creative ideas at playgrounds. They site Teardrop Park in New York as a "manifesto on the possibilities of a playground."

It's a long article but an interesting read if you are planning to build a playground.

Science Museum of Minnesota

Way back in the summer we went to Minneapolis. We stopped off at the Science Museum and explored this great new museum along the Mississippi River.

In their temporary-under-construction exhibit area was a Geometry exhibit. In there, was this:



This is one of the new structures put out by Landscape Structures (also based in Minneapolis). Pretty cool as it is, but put it into a building where you don't expect it and WAY COOL!!

Hmm. . . putting something in a playground that you wouldn't expect to be there and it makes it that much better. That's an idea.

Hershey Park, PA

Okay, this isn't really an official playground, but this water park was just so outrageously insanely cool!

This is the water park that opened this year at Hershey Park, PA.

The structure must go up 10 stories and there are a couple of water slides that start from up there! Of course, we never did any of them because it was a 20-minute wait to go down it. . . lines were everywhere.

Anyway, it was really neat and water was spraying everywhere including a GIAGANTOUS bucket at the top of the structure that literally DUMPS hundreds of gallons of water on to the people below!!! There were hoses all over the structure where you could maliciously spray other water park goers with. . . it was an invitation to be mean and annoying. That was fun.

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

Last week we went on a family vacation to Hershey, PA. Didn't get to see a lot of playgrounds because of the tight schedule (why do we have to have such a tight schedule?), but we did stop at one that was uneventful other than the cool ground cover. Ripped apart tires. It's the same stuff they use at fancy horse runs at some stables. Cushy stuff! Much softer than anything around. Of course it's really expensive.

Anyway, the playground was at Blessed Sacrament Elementary School in Franklin Lakes, NJ.

Action Cove, West Newbury

oh man.


Maybe this is why nobody in this area is carrying my book, because they see it as incomplete.

While working on the first edition of the book way back in 2004, somebody told me about this INCREDIBLE playground in Newburyport, "Action . . . something". They were unsure of the name. Well, the first edition did not include that area, so I wrote down the name and tucked it away.

Working on the second edition, I remembered this comment and tried to find it. Well, I thought I had found it when I saw Mosely Woods with all it's cool sculptural climbing structures and beautiful pine woods surroundings. It's in Newburyport.

Second edition comes out, $4000 worth of printing, two months later. I am told of Action COVE in WEST NEWBURYPORT.

Oh man.

So here it is. It is a 5 star playground and it is VERY similar to Eagle Nest Playground in Essex, but has been updated last year with plastic caps on all hand railings and plastic timbers on all flooring of the all wooden structure.


This is a very cool playground as was correctly told to me. It was a swelteringly hot day when we went to go visit this but there are many places to shelter from the blazing sun, including at benches and picnic tables.

It is located on Bachelor St between Sawmill Brook Rd/ Meetinghouse Hill Rd and Middle St. Closer to Sawmill Brook Road.

Look for the downloadable PDF at my UPDATE page at the web site:
www.visualvoices.net/publications/update.html

Give me a few more days, summer vacation is happening and I can't do any work while my kids are using the computer to play Webkins.

Chutes and Ladders

I was in Bloomington, Minnesota with the boys a couple years back and my brother brought us to this incredible playground called Chutes and Ladders at the Hyland Park Reserve (directions). The rope structure must have been about 20 feet high. The playground was built into the hill with many levels and a giant 20 foot tube slide. It also had a water sprinkler section too. Did I mention that the ground cover was also crushed, recycled rubber mats? Really a cool place!
A view from ground level with the two towering net and rope structures on the left, water sprinkler area to the right, and the giant tube slide in the background.

A view of the playground from a higher vantage point. Gorgeous green view, huh?

The playground is located within the Hyland Park Reserve. If you cannot get to the link above for directions, here are the DIRECTIONS: 

From I-494, go south on East Bush Lake Road approximately 1/2 mile. Follow East Bush Lake road which will veer right (west) at the stoplight. Drive past the ski jump on the left; the Nature Center will be the next entrance on the left, about 1 mile. The Recreation Area/Visitor Center/ PLAY AREA will be 1 mile further south on the left side. Drive past Bush Lake Beach and Southern DIvision Administration Center and veer left to the recreation area entrance.

#1 RATED PLAYGROUND

I thought maybe you would like to see the #1 rated playground in the book in glaring full color. The photos just don't do it justice though. But here they are. Stage Fort Park, Gloucester.

A view towards the visitor center (on the left) and the gazebo.


This is a view from the top of the hill looking towards the ocean. It's about January when some of these photos were taken. Stage Fort is still being redone and is only about halfway done. You can see the lighthouse structure way in the background. The boat and truck structure are in the middle left background.


Here's a closer view of the play structure.


The boat and lighthouse structures.

This is a view of Half Moon Beach taken from atop a rocky outcrop over looking the beach.