The American Playground: Revitalizing Community Space

By R. D. Kushner

The history of playgrounds and playground design in America reflects the hopes of generations of parents and politicians, as they endeavored to make the public space of playgrounds a safe and enriching environment for children and adults alike.

Susan G. Solomon traces the evolution of the American playground from the early designs of the late nineteenth-century, through the commercialization of playground equipment by the company Creative Playthings in the 1960’s. She follows the history and social consequences of playground design, up to the present day, as a way to understand the predicament of contemporary playground design and to posit a direction for the future.

Solomon draws on the precedence of many European playgrounds which were inspirational to American designers, as she examines the influential work of Dutch landscape architect C. Th. Sorensen and Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck. She argues for the historical significance of the “Adventure Playground,” developed during World War I, and shows its continued influence on contemporary American designers who use its lessons to deal with the monotony, banality, and “danger free” experiences of today’s modern playground. American architects, landscape designers and sculptors like Louis Kahn, Richard Dattner, Stanley Saitowitz, Walter Hood, and Mary Miss are among the many designers the author sees as providing useful and demonstrative concepts capable of reinvigorating the American playground.

Solomon offers a compelling argument that there is a crisis in American playground design, and this both reflects and affects a hindered social development among children and adults in cotemporary American society. She likens this crisis to that which modern architecture faced in the middle of the twentieth-century:

Playground design is in a state analogous to modern architecture in the late 1950’s. Bereft of the European idealism that had nurtured its conception in the 1920’s and 1930’s, American modernist buildings were often stylistic replications of themselves, lacking intellectual and design rigor. Modernism was often just another “style,” somewhat like the historicism against which it has originally rebelled. Modern architecture activated reformers, including Aldo van Eyck and Louis Kahn. Let’s hope that a similar period of reevaluation will come soon from industrial designers, who will reassess and improve on mass-produced playgrounds. (210)

After elucidating on the nature and the history of the crisis, Solomon then provides an instructive list of case studies, from the last decade, where designers have illustrated the potential for playground design to benefit the needs of both individuals and entire communities. All of these case studies challenge the status quo of playground design and explore the benefit of play in the development of social skills and individual creativity. At the same time, these case studies deal creatively with the realistic challenges which face a modern, litigious, American consumer-society.

Solomon does not propose that the task for reinvigorating the American playground will be easy. Her book ends with an examination of the major forces which American designers will have to deal with if they are to provide design solutions which will enable the playground to play an important role in childhood development and learning. She addresses several influential factors in modern playground design: Lawsuits, affordability, access to building sites, and the pervasive undervaluation of playgrounds by American society. For Solomon, these obstacles are not barriers to design, but merely challenges to overcome in order to provide play spaces that make real community places in urban and suburban environments.

As difficult at this task may be, Solomon is powerfully optimistic that the current tide in American playground design will usher in a new age where local politicians, communities, and individuals will develop unique playgrounds to provide solutions to their particular problems. Because she argues for individual design solutions to individual community problems and challenges, her book does not provide a simple recipe for success; it shows something much more important. Solomon shows for the first time how American playgrounds came to be the way they are. She shows convincingly that a trend has begun; and her book details the tools to be used and the challenges that must be overcome for American playgrounds to, once again, become extraordinary catalysts of cultural and social exchange that can shape American lives for the better.