This summer, KABOOM!, alongside partners Emerson Collective and Congress Heights Community Training and Development Corporation (CHCTDC), was part of a vibrant ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new playground at Sycamore & Oak in the Southeast Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Congress Heights. The energy was electric, with live go-go music and a bustling crowd celebrating not just the playground but the spirit of the community.
Walking through the beautifully designed space, which is home to more than 20 hyper-local Black-owned businesses, there were hundreds of people, including families enjoying the festivities. Kids painted murals, danced to the local go-go bands Black Alley and Backyard Band, and relished snow cones, all while parents joined in the celebration. This wasn’t just about inaugurating a playground; it was a celebration to mark the first birthday of Sycamore & Oak, a community and cultural hub designed for and by the Congress Heights community.
Located on the historic St. Elizabeth’s campus, Sycamore & Oak is a model of inclusive development. It serves as a retail and dining hub, entertainment venue, and play area for kids, demonstrating how community leadership can drive meaningful change. What makes the playground unique is the commitment to innovation, sustainability, and nature, reflecting the priorities of the kids and their community. It’s a state-of-the-art playground that Congress Heights has never seen before.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser celebrating the playspace ribbon-cutting.
The community desired a vibrant, sustainable, and nature-inspired playspace. To achieve this vision, KABOOM! turned to leading playground manufacturer, KOMPAN, which not only creates amazing playspaces but also is committed to significantly reducing the carbon footprint of playgrounds, which are typically made from steel, plastic, and rubber. The new playspace at Sycamore & Oak, which was designed together with kids and community members, was built primarily with sustainably harvested Robinia (black locust) wood, as well as a range of other post-industrial and post-consumer recycled materials.
This project is particularly meaningful as it stands in the same neighborhood as KABOOM!’s very first playground in 1995 and KABOOM!’s 3000th playground in 2017, showcasing the progress and innovation we’ve achieved together in Congress Heights.
“When I was a kid, there were playgrounds that weren’t inviting and had just the bare minimum — maybe a slide and some monkey bars. We made the best of it with our imaginations,” said Stephanie Campbell, Executive Director of CHCTDC, who was born and raised in Congress Heights and continues to raise her own kids there.
The new playground at Sycamore & Oak brought kids’ and their parents’ imaginations to life and represents a safe, fun space for children with more engaging play elements made from natural materials, a stark contrast to the previous environments their parents and grandparents played in. Kids in large urban cities often do not live within a safe walking distance to the many benefits that access to nature and green spaces offer. The Sycamore & Oak playground demonstrates what’s possible when play and the environment are both prioritized.
Community members who were part of the build process shared their pride in the transformation of their neighborhood. Words like “resilient,” “thriving,” and “family” echoed throughout what they shared their experiences were – emphasizing the collective spirit that defines Congress Heights.
“We are the soul of the city. Sycamore & Oak is a place for us, by us,” said Lucian “Louie” Sweetenberg, Executive Coordinator of Sycamore & Oak and long-time resident of Congress Heights. “My daughter still talks about being part of the design process to build the playground. The playground has been one of the best things in our community. We’ve seen teacher activations after school, communal moments, people coming to rest and relax, and daycares bringing their kids. Inside the space near the playground, there’s amazing fashion and shopping and a new element of food has been brought to the south side. We are becoming the #1 spot in D.C. — a space of love and energy.”
This would not have been possible without KABOOM!’s partnership with Emerson Collective, which is rooted in a shared history of meaningful community-driven collaboration, including a previous project working with Emerson Collective’s Chicago CRED initiative to address gun violence. Through our collaboration on the Pullman Peace Playground project on the south side of Chicago, rival gangs came together in a truce to conceive of and build a new playspace where their children could play together, a shining example of the power of community-led projects.
Typically, development happens to Black communities, not with Black communities, we’re really interested in shifting the paradigm because communities include people, culture, humanity, and legacy. That all needs to be honored through the work we do. We can’t go in and do what we think the community wants or needs. Our interests shouldn’t supersede what the community wants for itself.
Dana Hall, Director of Programs at Emerson Collective.
Sycamore & Oak has become a hub for various activities, such as after-school programs, community gatherings, concerts, and even an event featuring award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay. It embodies a shared vision of what a community space can be — inviting, engaging, resilient, and reflective of its people.
Sycamore & Oak stands as a beacon of hope and a model for community-driven development. The playground project reminds us all of the importance of listening to community voices and prioritizing their needs, ensuring that spaces like this continue to flourish.
“South side, we outside!” is a mantra that Louie, Stephanie, and many other community members use to remind themselves that their community has grown to be a safe, fun place to be – a place where people want to be. At the forefront of innovative, sustainable playspace design, Sycamore & Oak is even becoming a destination for people from many parts of the larger Washington, D.C. area to enjoy.
Here’s to many more joyful days at Sycamore & Oak, where kids are happy, healthy, and more connected to nature and their families and the broader community can come together to play, interact, and thrive!
