In New York City, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) is building parks and playgrounds with some of the most creative designers in the field — the kids and the communities that will use the spaces. TPL has been using a participatory design process to transform underused school yards into playgrounds and parks since 1996.

Now, Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 initiative plans to open 290 school playgrounds around the city, and TPL will lead the participatory design for 185 of these. In 24 sites, TPL will manage the projects from start to finish and the process will be integrated into school and after-school curriculum.

“The participatory design process begins with engaging the community and recruiting stakeholders,” explains Mary Alice Lee, director at the Trust for Public Land. “We involve the community, kids, and educators in a 3-day workshop to design the park.”

TPL and landscape architects guide the designers, but try to intervene as little as possible. On the first day of the design process, they teach the kids the basics of the design process and then let them take the lead. “We start in the morning, going outside to see where it’s sunny, where it’s noisy, how the site informs the design,” says Lee. “They know the site, and small but important things like where the water puddles are.”

Keeping in mind different ages of kids and the community around them, the group talks about what each group might want in a school yard and how they want it to look. “In considering the various constituencies, we think about things like where the parents will be while their kids are playing,” explains Lee. “We want them to sit close to the play areas, have some shade, and we want to provide activities for them.” One way to engage the adults and encourage activity is building a lap around a play area, with signage that gives information like ‘5 laps = 1 mile = 300 calories’. “

After we survey the site and talk about what they might like to see in the park, we create models,” says Lee. “The design process is amazing—we begin the day with this blank sheet of paper and at the end of the day we have this beautiful design,” says Lee.

On this second day of the workshop, the participants are divided into about 5 groups, and they use construction paper templates to design the park. The kids, school administrators and educators, and community members all participate. After they create their designs, each group describes their work and then they collaborate to create a single park design.

On the third day they show the final plan, and talk about programming. “We create ideas, work books, and talk about ways that after school or community groups can use the space,” says Lee. “We also like to have programming on Saturday.

TPL is trying to move beyond playground and park design and construction to help ensure that rule-making, management, security and access are addressed. “We try to find community sponsorships, like block associations or after school programs, to help address some of these concerns,” says Lee. “We build half-court basketball courts with lower hoops to discourage bigger kids…things like that.”

TPL became involved in renovating school yards, says Lee, because “New York needs more recreation spaces for kids, and schoolyards are great because there’s a captive audience.” Now, with the entire city in their court, they’ll be taking a lead in the nation’s most ambitious program of its kind.

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