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| Monday, May 05, 2008 |
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KaBOOM! & Rockwell Group's Imagination Playground partnership featured in New York Times
By alynsen @ 10:03 AM :: 462 Views ::
2 Comments ::  :: KaBOOM! in the News
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| An Invitation to Child’s Play: Big Blocks and Wheelbarrows
By DIANE CARDWELL
Published: May 4, 2008
New York Times  It is the playground of the future, already in beta mode in New York City and coming soon to empty lots, day care centers and even suburban backyards across the country. Instead of monkey bars and jungle gyms, there are blue and white blocks to stack into high walls or to connect as sluices and walkways. In place of swing sets and seesaws, there are wheelbarrows and rolling carts to move materials about. And while there are still the familiar elements of sand and water, they are no longer there to be shoveled and splashed so much as turned into landscapes of fanciful design. The idea began with the architect David Rockwell’s desire to create a more engaging play space for his children — and others — on a parking lot near the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. Construction of that playground is to begin in July. But the concept has expanded to include portable collections of Mr. Rockwell’s play gear that can be used in playgrounds around the city, starting with one in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn this summer. Next, Mr. Rockwell plans to bring his novel approach to cities around the nation through a partnership with the nonprofit playground developer Kaboom. “Play is on the decline in the United States, and frankly, kids’ creativity is on the decline in the United States,” said Darell Hammond, the founder of Kaboom, which is working with Mr. Rockwell to manufacture and distribute the custom-designed loose parts, which experts say encourage more imaginative, child-directed play than fixed structures do. “We’re betting our future on this concept, that this concept is going to — in generations or decades — make better kids.” ... Read the full article
Learn more about our partnership with the Rockwell Group and Imagination Playground!
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bob43 @
Saturday, May 10, 2008 2:15 PM
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First ,I would like to complement Kaboom on finally attempting to move past the limited scope of their concept and definition of a great play space. By starting to get your nose out of a Manufactures Catalogue and realizing that because of your success and stature with communities and cities, that you can truly be a much greater force in shaping the future of this industry and the play spaces we provide. That you have the potential to be much more than just a very successful Not for Profit organization and a good source of revenue for one particular Manufacture at a time. With that said, I would strongly suggest that Kaboom step back from their involvement and promotion of the Rockwells Imagination Park in New York till the Park is actually constructed and functioning as designed. This project, as it is proposed, has little, if any ,chance of being a success or even lasting past it's inaugural first short season. The theory and goals are wonderful, the flaw is in the design, materials and concept. The city and principles involved in this project are moving way to fast to make it a reality and I am certain have no real grasp of the hundreds of unknowns that await them with this type of play environment. I do not know where to start in trying to express the multitude of dangerous materials, potentially hazardous scenarios and generally poor choices and design concepts. From strangulation from free hanging ropes and large balls bouncing into boarding street traffic, to all the issues of safety and contamination of any type of water contain feature plus major fall zone and safe surfacing issues, especially concerning loose stack-able or interlocking objects. Accessibility requirements seem to have been mostly over looked. But probably most crucial of all will be the issue and logistics of the Play Associates, I know it will take 5 to 10 times the man power they are planning to utilize to safely and effectively manage a play environment like this one, any less and they will function as nothing more than conflict resolvers, lifeguards, babysitters and policemen. For a play environment of this type to have any chance it will take the training and cooperation of the parents even more importantly than the children. Especially in an inner city environment. What the city is attempting is more than admirable and definitely a necessary and exciting step in the evolution of play. My fear is that the failure of this high profile but poorly conceived and planned attempt will hinder if not destroy any future considerations of such innovative solutions. I know the city and the Rockwell Group will survive from this failure but Kaboom, being in the playground business, may have a lot more at stake. I again suggest you stand back and let this one unfold before jumping to much on-board this train wreck. Good luck Bob.
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By
DHammond @
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:58 PM
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Bob,
Thanks so much for your feedback on our collaboration with the Rockwell Group. You bring up great points, many of which have been considered and others which haven’t. You are correct that all the answers cannot be known in any scenario, despite all the planning that goes into a project. Often, the answers cannot be found even in the execution.
However, from our own observations of the kids interacting with the blocks and what we’ve taken from the prototyping that Rockwell has done, we believe that this design has an impressive amount of play value. The Rockwell Group’s work to elicit kids’ feedback and develop the right design has been, frankly, quite revolutionary.
As we move forward with the pilot “Imagination Playground in a Box” design in Brownsville this summer, this research will be invaluable in the development of a fully-scaled product. Although the Brownsville prototype won’t answer all the questions you propose – or others that may arise – it should give us more data points to make sure that the Burling Slip project and the many others to be built across the county are indeed successful.
As for the future of KaBOOM!, this does not indicate a departure from our signature work. We will continue the great work that we’ve been doing over the last 12 years, empowering communities across the nation to build playgrounds tailored to their needs, including now working with multiple manufacturers. We see our partnership with the Rockwell Group as a compliment and an opportunity to revisit the over 1,400 playspaces of which we’ve had the honor to be a part by adding an additional play components.
It was never our intent to set the definition of what makes a great place to play. Rather, we prompt communities towards deliberate collaboration in order to have them define the greatest places in which their community can play. They envision, design, and create these spaces and, ultimately, are held accountable for the resulting space. For many of the greatest spaces we’ve been involved with, the equipment is the smallest component. The organic garden we built with a charter school in Long Beach or the nature trail we helpd build in Georgia are fine examples of how communities take distinctive ownership of the space.
There’s no doubt that with innovation comes risk. In this case, we think the risks will have substantial payoffs. I hope this conversation can continue and look forward to seeing the comments as others weigh in with thoughts, ideas and impressions, as all of these will be very valuable to the development of this and the other programs that KaBOOM! will be a part of in the future.
Darell Hammond
CEO and Co-Founder
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